Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Value Equity Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. U.S. equity markets hit new all-time highs in Q4 2025, with the S&P 500 Index up 2.66% and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index rising 1.10%. Value stocks outperformed growth stocks, and the U.S. economy showed resilience. Artificial intelligence was a major theme, with over 300 S&P 500 companies mentioning “AI” in earnings calls, boosting mega-cap tech stocks. However, concerns arose about AI revenue circularity, capital spending, and long-term investment returns. Against this backdrop, the Composite returned 1.45% pure gross of fees (0.95% net of fees), lagging the Russell 1000 Value Index’s 3.8% gain and the S&P 500 Index’s 2.66% gain. Please review the Strategy’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Aristotle Capital Value Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH). Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) is a leading banking company that the strategy sold in the quarter. On February 3, 2026, Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) stock closed at $53.59 per share. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) delivered a -0.24% return in the past month, and its shares are down 17.69% over the past twelve months. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) has a market capitalization of $7.897 billion.
Aristotle Capital Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“We first invested in Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH), the Kansas City-based bank, in the fourth quarter of 2019. We were attracted to the bank’s conservatively run franchise, disciplined approach to credit, well-diversified revenue mix with a meaningful contribution from fee-based businesses, and long-tenured management team that has historically operated with a “private company” mindset. At the time of purchase, we identified several catalysts, including continued loan growth—particularly in core Kansas markets—prudent expense management, sustained strong credit underwriting, and the accretive deployment of excess capital through dividends and share repurchases. Over our holding period, Commerce executed consistently against these objectives, demonstrating resilience through multiple operating environments while maintaining strong credit quality, disciplined cost control and steady capital returns, including a long history of dividend increases. As these catalysts played out, we chose to sell our position and redeployed the proceeds into what we view as a more attractive investment opportunity in Wells Fargo, which we purchased in the third quarter of 2025.”
Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) at the end of the third quarter, up from 29 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) 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 Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) and shared a list of best dividend kings to invest in. 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.
