Richie Capital Group, an investment management firm, published its fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A quarterly portfolio net return of 4.8% was recorded by the RCG Long Only strategy for the fourth quarter of 2021, while the RCG Long Short Fund gained 5.6%. The fund’s benchmarks, the Russell 3000 Index, the Equity Long-Short Index, and the S&P 500 Large Cap Index returned 2.3%, -0.2%, and 10.7% respectively for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Richie Capital Group, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Whole Earth Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FREE) and discussed its stance on the firm. Whole Earth Brands, Inc. is a Chicago, Illinois-based global food company with a $369.8 million market capitalization. FREE delivered a -16.29% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -28.08%. The stock closed at $8.99 per share on March 03, 2022.
Here is what Richie Capital Group has to say about Whole Earth Brands, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Whole Earth Brands (FREE – down 6.3%) – The producer of “better for you” sweeteners stock continued to decline during Q4. The company has been impacted by disruptions across global supply chains. On the earnings call, management emphasized the importance of their ongoing supply chain reinvention project to help mitigate volatility, protect margin and create opportunities to drive efficiencies over the long-term. The company carries $350M in net debt (~4.6x debt/Adj. EBITDA) from recent acquisitions, but management is focused on reducing leverage quickly. The story remains largely misunderstood by the market. The growth and market share gains of their fast-growing new brands including Whole Earth, Pure Via, Swerve and Wholesome are hidden behind the slower growth legacy brands such as Equal and Canderel which were hampered by Covid’s impact on the food service industry. As management continues to execute and make astute capital allocation decisions, we believe the broader market will agree with our view.”
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Our calculations show that Whole Earth Brands, Inc. (NYSE: NHC) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. FREE was in 15 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 16 funds in the previous quarter. Whole Earth Brands, Inc. (NYSE: NHC) delivered a -14.38% return in the past 3 months.
In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on FREE 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.