Loomis Sayles, an investment management company, released its “Global Growth Fund” investor letter for the second quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund returned 16.61% compared to 11.53% for the MSCI ACWI Index Net. The firm seeks to invest in high-quality businesses that possess sustainable competitive advantages and experience profitable growth, especially when these companies are trading at a substantial discount to their intrinsic value. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund highlighted stocks such as Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM). Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) is a leading travel service provider for accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours, in-destination, corporate travel management, and other travel-related services. The one-month return of Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) was 3.24%, and its shares gained 28.12% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 29, 2025, Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) stock closed at $76.14 per share, with a market capitalization of $49.765 billion.
Loomis Sayles Global Growth Fund stated the following regarding Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:
“China-based Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM), formerly known as Ctrip, is the world’s largest global travel platforms. Founded in 1999, the company offers a comprehensive, integrated platform on which travelers can make arrangements for lodging, transportation, packaged tours and other related services, including online advertising and financial services, as well as providing corporate travel management services. The company provides its services in China through its Ctrip and Qunar platforms and serves non-Chinese customers primarily thorough Trip.com and Skyscanner. China-related travel accounts for over 85% of revenue, but Trip.com is available in 24 languages and 35 local currencies while Skyscanner is available in over 50 countries and over 35 languages. Trip.com also holds equity interests in other leading travel sites, including Tongcheng-Elong, China’s third largest online travel agent (OTA), and MakeMyTrip, the largest OTA in India.
A holding in the fund since the first quarter of 2020, Trip.com reported quarterly financial results that were fundamentally strong and above consensus expectations for revenue, adjusted operating profit, and earnings per share. Year-over-year revenue growth of 16% reflected continued recovery of the China travel market, as well as increased demand for international travel and the company’s global brands. Cross-border flight capacity recovered to 83% of pre-pandemic levels, and the company expects it to approach 90% by year end, leading management to reiterate its full-year guidance for mid-teens revenue growth. Travel booking on the company’s international OTA platform rose 60% year over year, driven by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region. To support the growth of its global business and brands, the company increased sales and marketing expenditures by 30% year over year, and expects the higher level of investment to be sustained over the near-term. As a result, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margins of 31% declined 270 basis points year over year, but were still above consensus estimates. Despite the substantial impact of Covid-19 on the travel industry, the company has maintained a strong and improving financial position that includes cash and both short and long-term investments of $17.9 billion, which substantially exceed the company’s $2.8 billion of outstanding debt.
As the leading global travel platform and largest in China, we believe Trip.com is well positioned to benefit from long-term growth in travel expenditures by consumers and business travelers in China. The company has largely recovered from the pandemic, with much of the business now exceeding pre-pandemic levels while other parts of the industry such as international flights still remain at approximately 85% of pre-pandemic levels. We believe the company’s share price embeds expectations for key revenue and cash flow metrics that are substantially below our long-term assumptions. As a result, we believe the company’s shares are trading at a significant discount to our estimate of intrinsic value and can offer a compelling reward-to-risk opportunity.”
Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) at the end of the second quarter, down from 46 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) 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 Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) and shared a bullish thesis on the company. 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.
