Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch are two of history’s most successful investors. And in a Number Cruncher column for Canada’s Globe and Mail, John Heinzl says combining their strategies has led to some big returns.

Using data from Validea Canada, Globe and Mail last year set up a portfolio of stocks that met both Validea’s Lynch-inspired investment model’s criteria and its Buffett-based model’s criteria. “From the portfolio’s inception date on Jan. 18, 2012, through March 20, 2013, eight of the nine stocks rose, with several producing substantial double-digit gains,” Heinzl writes. “As was the case in our last update in January, convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard led the pack, up 75.8 per cent, followed by quick-service restaurant franchisor MTY Food Group, ahead by 65.5 per cent. Over all, the portfolio posted an advance of 23.6 per cent, excluding dividends. That trounced the S&P/TSX composite index, which rose 4 per cent over the same period, also excluding dividends.”

Globe and Mail recently performed the screen again, Heinzl says. This time it found just three stocks that pass both the Lynch- and Buffett-inspired models. Among them: Home Capital Group. To see the others, click here.