ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Value Equity Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy underperformed the benchmark Russell 1000 Value Index in the fourth quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy posted gains in 10 of 11 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter. The sole detractor from the Strategy’s performance was the communication services sector, while positive contributors included the financials and health care sectors. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
ClearBridge Investments Value Equity Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1984, Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) is a Brookfield, Wisconsin-based financial services company with a $67.2 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Frank Bisignano. Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) delivered a -0.59% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -16.58%. The stock closed at $103.18 per share on April 04, 2022.
Here is what ClearBridge Investments Value Equity Strategy has to say about Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“While the threat of disruption risk to these established payment companies should not be taken lightly, it is important to note that many of these emerging disruptors are small relative to the massive global payments network and heavily reliant on the very payment infrastructure they are trying to disrupt. This led us to initiate a position in Fiserv, whose stock dropped to a level that embedded projections for negative long-term growth despite no current evidence of disruption. We think Fiserv will continue to grow despite perceived disruption risks given its scale and efficiency. Fiserv also owns cloud-based payments hardware and software system Clover, which is both bigger and faster growing than Square; this provides an additional degree of protection against further disruption risk.
Our calculations show that Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) was in 61 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 65 funds in the previous quarter. Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) delivered a -5.34% return in the past 3 months.
In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
