Here’s Why Ariel Investments Sold Carnival Corp. (CCL)

Ariel Investments, an investment management firm, published its fourth-quarter 2020 ‘Ariel Fund’, ‘Ariel Appreciation Fund’, ‘Ariel Focus Fund’, ‘Ariel International Fund’, and ‘Ariel Global Fund’ Investor Letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter of 2020, a return of 31.56% was recorded by Ariel fund, 23.57% by Ariel Appreciation Fund, 21.62% by Ariel Focus Fund, 8.26% by Ariel International Fund, and 9.80% return by Ariel Global Fund. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Ariel Investments, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, emphasized that they sold their Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE: CCL) position. Carnival Corporation & plc is a cruise operator and is the biggest travel leisure company in the world. It currently has a $30.3 billion market capitalization. In the past month, CCL delivered a 24.04% return, and in March 8, 2021, it closed at $26.69 per share.

Here is what Ariel Investments has to say about Carnival Corporation & plc in their Q4 2020 investor letter:

“We did not purchase any new names or eliminate any holdings in Ariel Fund during the quarter. Although we did not initiate any new positions in Ariel Appreciation Fund, we sold cruise line company, Carnival Corp (CCL), to pursue more attractive opportunities.”

Best Places to Live Right Outside NYC with Easiest Commute

mandritoiu/Shutterstock.com

Our calculations show that Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE: CCL) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Carnival Corporation & plc was in 47 hedge fund portfolios compared to 37 funds in the third quarter. CCL delivered a 22.20% return YTD.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best innovative stocks to buy to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website:

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.