Middle Coast Investing, an investment advisor firm, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The letter explores the concept of ‘meme’ introduced by Richard Dawkins and its impact on modern stock market trends. It highlights how memes, such as Large Language Models (LLMs), artificial intelligence (AI), rising gas prices, private credit, and automated driving, play a crucial role in shaping trading decisions and driving quick ideological changes. However, Investment decisions should not be driven by current news cycles or fads, but rather focus on businesses that are resilient in tough times and capable of leveraging their advantages. These principles require discipline, especially in a volatile market environment. The US portfolio returned -3.9% in the quarter vs. -4.6% for the S&P 500, Core U.S. portfolios returned -4.3% vs the Russell 2000’s 0.6% return, S&P 600’s 3.1%, and Nasdaq’s -7.1% returns. Additionally, European Portfolios returned -2.9% during the same period. In addition, please check the Strategy’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Middle Coast Investing highlighted stocks like Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG). Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is a leading online travel booking platform. On April 16, 2026, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) closed at $184.56 per share. One-month return of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was 6.71%, and its shares gained 0.89% over the past 52 weeks. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) has a market capitalization of $146.14 billion.
Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“We’ve owned Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) shares since 2018. It was one of the first stocks I bought at a full price for what I considered a great company. It took the pandemic sell-off and then revenge travel theme for Booking to deliver market-beating returns, but we got there. And as it reached those higher levels in 2024 and 2025, I did a little trimming, because anything could happen.
A number of things have and haven’t happened to the stock. Any economic fears tend to affect travel companies through the view that travel is discretionary. The ascendance of LLMs presented a new middleman for online travel agents to deal with, and a potential existential threat to its business. There have been a number of geopolitical events that disrupt the travel environment. The dollar has weakened, and the U.S. has become less welcoming and less attractive to foreign visitors at just the time where they might take advantage of that weaker dollar…” (Click here to read the full text)
Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 109 hedge fund portfolios held Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 95 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) 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 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and shared Vltava Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 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.
