Autozone (AZO) Fell as the Market Favored More Offensive Securities

Macquarie Asset Management, an investment management company, released its “Macquarie Core Equity Fund” investor letter for the second quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The US large-cap equity market surged in Q2 2025, with the S&P 500® Index rising 10.94%. The equity market’s strength was due to reduced concerns over the possibility of President Trump quickly imposing harsh tariffs. Later, the administration put a pause on the tariff implementation. In this environment, the Macquarie Core Equity Fund’s Institutional Class returned 11.94% surpassing the benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. Eighty percent of the relative performance was driven by sector selection, and individual security selection accounted for the remainder. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, the Macquarie Core Equity Fund highlighted stocks such as AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO). AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) is a retailer of automotive replacement parts and accessories. The one-month return of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) was 0.54%, and its shares gained 36.82% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 18, 2025, AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) stock closed at $4,132.83 per share, with a market capitalization of $69.137 billion.

Macquarie Core Equity Fund stated the following regarding AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“AutoZone, Inc.’s (NYSE:AZO) shares declined slightly during the quarter and failed to keep up with impressive benchmark returns. As a defensive investment (cars consistently break and need repair), shares lagged as market participants migrated to more offensive securities.”

In another article, we covered AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) and shared the list of stocks to invest in before they split next. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.