Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities experienced a strong momentum in 2025 and marked their second consecutive year of double-digit gains. The market witnessed one of the fastest recoveries following its dip into bear territory in April. Market leadership continued to narrow as Mega-cap stocks and AI-driven companies dominated the landscape. Against this backdrop, The Mar Vista’s U.S. Quality strategy reported +0.20% net-of-fees gains in Q4 2025 vs. the Russell 1000® Index’s +2.41% return and the S&P 500® Index’s +2.65% return. Stock selection in the communication services, consumer discretionary, and financials sectors was favorable to its performance, while stock selection in information technology, materials, and healthcare detracted from its performance. The letter also shared that, in 2026, markets will need to strike a balance between strong fundamentals and increasing economic uncertainties. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy highlighted stocks such as Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN). Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a leading industrial gas company. On January 13, 2026, Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) stock closed at $442.90 per share. One-month return of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) was 4.87%, and its shares gained 3.49% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has a market capitalization of $207.68 billion.
Mar Vista U.S. Quality Strategy stated the following regarding Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“While the company remains a high-quality global leader in industrial gases, shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) declined nearly 10% in Q4 due to a persistent industrial gas volume recession, softer guidance and global macroeconomic concerns. From a macro standpoint, the company continues to struggle with negative base volumes in its core industrial segments. Much of this is attributable to economic stagnation in Europe and suppressed demand in China. While price increases helped offset some costs, they were insufficient to mask the 1-3% volume declines evidenced in these key territories.
In response to this weakness, management announced cautious guidance in late October and during subsequent updates in December, causing consensus earnings estimate reductions. These revisions drove P/E multiple contraction as investors rotated out of high-quality, defensive names like Linde into higher growth opportunities in other sectors like technology.
Despite the recent dip, we believe much of Linde’s woes are transitory in nature and not a breakdown of the business model. The company’s $10+ billion backlog, particularly in clean hydrogen and electronics, provides a strong foundation for a long-term growth recovery. We remain holders of the shares of this high-quality, wide moat business in anticipation of a future growth reacceleration.”
Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 76 hedge fund portfolios held Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) at the end of the third quarter, compared to 77 in the previous quarter. In Q3 2025, Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) reported sales of $8.6 billion, marking an increase of 3% from last year and 1% sequentially. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) 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 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) and shared the list of best hydrogen and fuel cell stocks to buy for 2026. 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.
