ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy” Q4 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy underperformed the Russell 2000 Growth Index in the fourth quarter, after a strong first three quarters of 2025. Market’s overreactions to earnings disappointments in the technology sector and a biotech rally drove the relative underperformance of the Strategy in the quarter. In a volatile year, dominated by a narrow set of themes, the small caps failed to outperform large caps, echoing the past two years, although broadening appears to be emerging. Heading to 2026, the Strategy is optimistic about the favorable backdrop for small-cap growth stocks following years of narrow market leadership and performance disparities. Please review the Strategy’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX). Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) is a biopharmaceutical company that develops peptide-based treatments. On March 26, 2026, Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) closed at $102.17 per share. One-month return of Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) was -2.76%, and its shares gained 2.83% over the past 52 weeks. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) has a market capitalization of $6.343 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“2025 was another active year for new idea generation, while we also endeavored to maintain our sell discipline in businesses where fundamentals have changed or idiosyncratic catalysts are lacking. With a gradual reopening of capital markets, along with dynamic trends across many end markets, we continue to find ample opportunities to identify high-quality investments across the spectrum of growth from compounders to hyper-growers.
During the fourth quarter we initiated four new common stock investments: Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX), Simpson Manufacturing Company, BETA Technologies, and Dyne Therapeutics.
Protagonist Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that currently has two internally discovered, clinically derisked drugs likely to launch with their partners in the near future, which we believe offer blockbuster potential — particularly an oral version of a well adopted injectable mechanism treating a range of immunology and inflammation conditions.”
Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 43 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) 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 Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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In another article, we covered Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) and shared a list of best long term healthcare stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.
