13D Activist Fund is a mutual fund that focuses on companies invested in by shareholder activists. The fund released its Q3 2025 investor letter. The class I shared of the fund returned 8.88%, net of fees and expenses, in the quarter compared to 12.39% for the Russell 2000 Index. Overall, the fund was thrilled with its performance this quarter. However, on a relative basis, there is room for improvement. The Russell 2000 outperformed the S&P 500 by the largest margin in three years, with a return of 12.39% compared to the S&P 500’s 8.12%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, 13D Activist Fund highlighted stocks such as Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP). Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is an online travel company. The one-month return for Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) was -1.04%, and its shares gained 8.46% over the last 52 weeks. On December 03, 2025, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) stock closed at $15.26 per share, with a market capitalization of $1.784 billion.
13D Activist Fund stated the following regarding Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is the operator of three online platforms designed to enhance the travel planning experience. Its legacy business, Tripadvisor.com, is a large guidance platform in the world, with 300 million monthly unique visitors and more than a billion reviews and $900 million in revenue. Viator, a rapidly scaling booking platform for tours and other travel experiences, is expected to do well over $900 million in revenue this year. Lastly, TheFork is a restaurant reservation platform, which is now an forefront marketplace for online dining reservations in Europe and is expected to generate over $200 million of revenue this year. Despite owning a trio of these businesses, the Company still trades at a heavy discount – around 7x EBITDA versus low to mid-teens for peers and even higher multiples for Tripadvisor historically.
There are a few explanations behind this valuation disconnect. Since its spinoff from Expedia in 2011 and up until just a few months ago, Tripadvisor had horrific governance – a controlled ownership by Liberty Media Corp, a dual class share structure, and weak shareholder protections such as a plurality voting standard. This was reflected in ISS recommending against the election of three directors at the 2025 Annual Meeting, including Tripadvisor and Liberty Media Chairman Gregory Maffei, who received over 60% withhold votes. Small, controlled companies don’t tend to trade very well and that is what this was. However, this all changed in April 2025 when Tripadvisor bought back Liberty Media’s controlling position and consequently collapsed the dual class structure. While the Company’s share price has appreciated since, it’s likely there is still some hangover from Liberty Media’s years of control. Secondly, the decline of Tripadvisor’s core nameplate business, which saw revenue decrease 7.95% from 2023 to 2024, is certainly a factor. If the Tripadvisor business was the Company’s only segment, this valuation could be justified. But Viator does as much revenue as Tripadvisor and is growing at double digit rates and TheFork is also growing at high single digits, has $200 million in revenue, $65 million in EBITDA and can reach margins greater than 20% at scale. And while Tripadvisor did have a year of declining sales, it is still a market leader with $900 million of revenue and $250 million of EBITDA with the Company expecting a return to growth this year…” (Click here to read the full text)
Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 39 hedge fund portfolios held Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) at the end of the third quarter, which was 40 in the previous quarter. Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) experienced a revenue growth of 4% in Q3 2025, totaling $553 million, with an adjusted EBITDA of $123 million, representing 22% of the revenue. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) and shared Longleaf Partners Small-Cap Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
