RiverPark Advisors, an investment advisory firm and sponsor of the RiverPark family of mutual funds, released its “RiverPark Large Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The Russell 1000 Growth Index (RLG) returned 14.16% and the S&P 500 index returned 11.69% during the fourth quarter of 2023, indicating a strong performance by the stock markets. RPX yielded a respectable 19.74% return as well. The S&P and RLG had annual returns of 26.29% and 42.68%, respectively. RPX gave back 51.57%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund featured stocks like Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) provides a cloud-based commerce platform. On February 23, 2024, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) stock closed at $76.24 per share. One-month return of Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) was -8.74%, and its shares gained 88.34% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) has a market capitalization of $98.135 billion.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP): Shopify shares were our top performer in the quarter following a strong 3Q earnings report that included better than expected revenue growth and substantial margin expansion. We wrote in October, after Shopify was our worst performer, that the stock had been volatile, despite the fact that the company’s underlying business has been “steadily improving following a post-Covid e-Commerce slowdown.” The most recent quarter, reported in early November, was a continuation of this steady recovery. Revenue growth of 25% was 3 percentage points better than investors expected and an acceleration over last year’s 3Q growth of 22%. More impressively, SHOP reported operating income margins of 16%, 600 basis points ahead of investor expectations. Free cash flow margins were also 16%, and the company guided 4Q free cash flow margins to the “high teens.” A combination of new merchants to the company’s platform, increased adoption of SHOP’s offerings by existing merchants, and e-commerce market share gains (SHOP merchants US sales on Black Friday grew 24% year over year vs US E-commerce in aggregate growing 7.5%) are driving this revenue growth and profitability.
Last year, 10% of US retail e-commerce sales flowed through SHOP, second only to Amazon, and the company is still enjoying significant tailwinds as retail merchants of all sizes adopt SHOP’s software tools to display, manage and sell their products across a dozen different sales channels. We believe that the overall growth of e-commerce, combined with the development of new products and services, such as its digital wallet Shop Pay, should continue to drive revenue growth of more than 20% per year over the next several years, accompanied by re-acceleration of operating margin growth and FCF generation.”
A customer service desk staff helping a customer with ecommerce services.
Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) was held by 68 hedge fund portfolios, down from 69 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in another article and shared Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund’s views on the company. 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.
