Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management firm, published its “Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund” first-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. Diamond Hill invests on behalf of clients through a shared commitment to its valuation-driven investment principles, long-term perspective, capacity discipline, and client alignment. Amid a rocky market environment, the portfolio’s negative returns still outpaced the Russell 2000 Index by a healthy margin in Q1. Try to take some time looking at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Diamond Hill Small-Mid Cap Fund mentioned PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1955, PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) is a Salt Lake City, Utah-based financial technology holding company with a $952.2 million market capitalization. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) delivered a -60.94% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -61.05%. The stock closed at $17.62 per share on July 12, 2022.
Here is what Diamond Hill Small-Mid Cap Fund has to say about PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“Rental and leasing services company PROG Holdings (NYSE:PRG) saw declining lease-to-own applications in January while PRG’s retail partners struggled with retail traffic and store staffing due to the omicron variant. Further, visibility into the lease-to-own consumer is cloudy in the near-term, as the industry starts lapping the prior year’s stimulus benefits. In our view, results should improve as the retail environment continues opening up. Because PRG offers flexible lease purchase solutions to help more credit-challenged customers toward product ownership, a recessionary environment could highlight the strength of PRG’s business model. We continue to be attracted to PRG’s relatively high-quality cash generation and its asset-light business model. There are also opportunities for the company to grow its relatively sticky retail partner base and expand into e-commerce and direct-to-consumer channels.”
Creative Collage Of Business Team Working On Project And Stock Markets Data On Trasparent Screen, Financial Statistics Layered Over Man Using Laptop For Trading On Forex, Panorama
Our calculations show that PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) was in 21 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to 23 funds in the previous quarter. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) delivered a -36.23% return in the past 3 months.
In May 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
