Here’s a Reason to Consider Selling Your Proto Labs (PRLB) Position

Harding Loevner, an investment management firm, published its “Global Small Companies Equity Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A quarterly net return of 2.86% was recorded by the fund for the fourth quarter of 2021, beating its Benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Small Cap Index, which returned 2.22% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Harding Loevner Global Small Companies Equity Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE: PRLB) and discussed its stance on the firm. Proto Labs, Inc. is a Maple Plain, Minnesota-based manufacturing company with a $1.5 billion market capitalization. PRLB delivered a 6.72% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -60.62%. The stock closed at $54.80 per share on March 01, 2022.

Here is what Harding Loevner Global Small Companies Equity Fund has to say about Proto Labs, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“For the year, the portfolio’s US stocks failed to keep up with the robust returns of the region in the face of a pronounced style headwind, as US small cap growth stocks trailed their value peers by over 1,400 basis points. Disappointing business results from several US companies also worked against us. Earnings at Protolabs, a rapid prototyping and manufacturing company, fell on a margin decline caused by ongoing investments in IT infrastructure and rising material and wage inflation.”

Our calculations show that Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE: PRLB) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PRLB was in 22 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 17 funds in the previous quarter. Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE: PRLB) delivered a 12.69% return in the past 3 months.

In May 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on PRLB 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.