ClearBridge Investments: “Shares of WIX Continued to Lose Momentum”

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “SMID Cap Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter, the ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy outperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across seven of the 10 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter (out of 11 sectors total), with the industrials sector the leading contributor, while the consumer discretionary and IT sectors were the primary detractors.  Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 2006, Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) is a Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel-based web development company with a $5.8 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Avishai Abrahami. Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) delivered a -34.52% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -61.30%. The stock closed at $103.36 per share on March 28, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy has to say about Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Strength in companies like New Relic offset weakness in highermultiple growth names that were dragged down by negative sentiment or short-term execution issues. Shares of Wix.com, for example, continued to lose momentum after a surge in demand for its web-based tools to create and manage desktop and mobile websites during the height of pandemic lockdowns. A leading beneficiary of a shift to a digital work and home environment, Wix sold off as it faced tough comparisons to the year ago period and was hurt by a rise in yields that impacted most long duration growth companies.”

Our calculations show that Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) was in 29 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 25 funds in the previous quarter. Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) delivered a -34.04% return in the past 3 months.

In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ:WIX) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.