Mutual fund managers have a difficult job, especially those overseeing funds with long-term objectives, because their performance is judged on an annual basis.

Another big problem for managers is that investors have a tendency to pour money into their funds when stock markets are strong, and vice versa. That can force them to buy high and sell low, hurting performance. Yes, they can sit on a mountain of cash to keep their options open, but that may also erode returns.

A real long-term value manager wants the freedom to stick with an investing strategy through thick and thin, hoping eventually to achieve a better average annual performance than the S&P 500 SPX, -2.37% or other broad index.

Read:These are the only three S&P 500 companies with 100% ‘buy’ ratings

In August, we looked at two long-term mutual funds that underperformed the S&P 500 during the bull market of the past six years, and even for 10 years, when measured by average annual total return, with dividends reinvested. But both managers had stuck with their strategies, and both had beaten the S&P 500’s 15-year annual average return.

So a really long-term strategy, through a few market cycles, might eventually outperform the index, despite all the railing against actively managed mutual funds for their underperformance versus index funds.

With that in mind, here are the 10 stocks that are most commonly held in value-oriented mutual funds, according to Morningstar. They’re weighted by market value exposure:

There are 624 distinct value funds, according to Morningstar.

Those stocks are familiar to almost any investor. You might even think of them as boring names, and for the most part, their average long-term total returns haven’t been exciting:

The index has outperformed six of those stocks over the past five years and has beaten six over the past 10 years. Most notable are Citigroup Inc. C, -3.32% , whose shares were brutally diluted in the wake of the credit crisis and government bailout, and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -3.20% , in light of the pummeling of shares over the past year and a half as oil prices have sunk.

But Citigroup is loved by value managers because of its operating improvement, as it disposes of noncore assets. And it is the only stock among the big four trading below tangible book value (89% of tangible book, according to FactSet) among the “big four” U.S. banks.

Exxon Mobil is among the major integrated oil companies that have been able to maintain dividend payouts despite the major whack to profits from the oil-price decline. Considering the history of profit and stock-price recoveries as downtrodden oil markets have recovered across the decades, this period of low prices may eventually be only a blip to Exxon Mobil’s long-term shareholders. Investors with medium-term horizons may even be staring at a bargain stock.

If we look back even further, we see that the S&P 500 has outperformed seven of 10 of these value stocks. That’s a major feather in the cap of anyone who believes index funds are their best bet for decent investment returns over the long run.

Where’s the value?

Here’s how forward price-to-earnings ratios for the 10 stocks compare to the index:

Only three of the stocks trade at higher forward price-to-earnings ratios than the index.

Exxon Mobil’s long-term fans, of course, hope this high forward P/E is only a temporary thing, until oil prices begin a sustained recovery.

Three of the most popular stocks among value-fund managers are big U.S. banks, which are all positioned to benefit from an increase of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, since their assets (loans and securities) will reprice faster than their deposits and borrowings. That could lead to steadily rising earnings over the next several years, along with higher price-to-earnings valuations, as long as the U.S. economy continues to cooperate.

General Electric Co. GE, -2.24% is continuing its transformation away from financial services, as it splits off its credit-card lending arm, Synchrony Financial SYF, -1.99% , after which 90% of GE’s revenue will come from industrial businesses.This last part of GE’s transformation will not only allow the company to escape the scrutiny of federal bank regulators, it will help it be valued by investors as a growing industrial stock rather than a bank stock.

Your next step, if you like any of these companies, is to take a long look at their performance and prospects to help decide whether they are long-term value plays for your portfolio.

Read: How to pick stocks that will outperform for the next 20 years