Does Watsco (WSO) Have a Resilient Business Model?

Investment management company Ave Maria recently released its “Ave Maria Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The total return of the fund in the fourth quarter was 14.25% compared to the 11.69% return for the S&P 500 Index. For the full year, the fund returned 30.29% compared to the 26.29% return for the index. You can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

Ave Maria Growth Fund featured stocks like Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) distributes air conditioning, heating, refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies. On February 28, 2024, Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) stock closed at $395.97 per share. One-month return of Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) was 0.27%, and its shares gained 28.37% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) has a market capitalization of $15.611 billion.

Ave Maria Growth Fund stated the following regarding Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) is an HVAC distributor whose resilient business model has generated 15% annualized returns for its investors over the previous 20 years. Part of the secret to Watsco’s success has been its ability to intelligently acquire competitors at reasonable prices. The CEO, Albert Nahmad, has been at the helm of Watsco since 1972, and if there were a hall of fame for public company management, he would surely be in it. Watsco’s near-term results should also benefit from the increasing price of HVAC equipment brought about by environmental regulations requiring more efficient units.”

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) was held by 33 hedge fund portfolios, up from 30 in the previous quarter, according to our database. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.