Boston Partners' Wayne Sharp: Every Bear Market Has A Bullish Lining.

Boston Partners Asset Management large-cap value equity co- portfolio manager Wayne Sharp has found a way to be somewhat bullish towards the bear market of the last several years. The trick, Sharp said, is to take advantage of a bear market to tactically add and prune certain stocks from a portfolio, lowering the portfolio's overall valuation, thus improving profitability characteristics.

"It's the silver lining of the bear market cloud," Sharp said. "The bear market in stocks has enabled us to upgrade the portfolio. Stock prices in general have come down, so some very nice companies are now in a valuation range."

The practice is core to the art of value managing, explains Sharp. "You want to buy good companies at a low price," she said.

For example, Sharp said her portfolio in March 2000 did not include shares of media giant Gannett, a much sought after equity, in her opinion.

"The operating return for Gannett is close to 60%, meaning they generate a whole lot of income relative to the assets they have employed in their business. This gives Gannett the ongoing characteristics of great return, but during the bubble years, when everything was so expensive, such...