Here’s Why Mayar Capital Sold its Nordstrom (JWN) Shares

Mayar Capital, an investment management firm, published its third-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A quarterly net loss of -5.26% was delivered by the fund for the third quarter of 2021, and this compares to its benchmark, the MSCI World Index returning -0.01% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Mayar Capital, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) and discussed its stance on the firm. Nordstrom, Inc. is a Seattle, Washington-based department store company with a $3.5 billion market capitalization. JWN delivered a -27.81% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -13.08%. The stock closed at $22.53 per share on November 29, 2021.

Here is what Mayar Capital has to say about Nordstrom, Inc.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Let us first start with the bad news. We fully exited our investment in Nordstrom during the quarter, one that we’ve held for many years and one that’s been a full position for us over the past 3 or 4 years. While the business and the stock have recovered substantially from the lows reached at the depth of the pandemic, the company’s recent performance has forced us to question its competitive position.

As you may recall, our view for many years was that Nordstrom was far ahead of competition in developing their online sales channel. Further, we believe that they have executed very well by taking advantage of their mix of physical locations to enable a seamless “omnichannel” experience for their customers. These two factors combined with the secular shift to online selling led us to believe that they were going to continue to capture market share from the competition. That seemed to be the case for several years…” (Click here to see the full text)

Based on our calculations, Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. JWN was in 25 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 31 funds in the previous quarter. Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) delivered a -19.62% return in the past 3 months.

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