Polen Capital Management Llc released its “Polen Focus Growth Strategy” Q4 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q4 2025, the Polen Focus Growth strategy delivered a -1.37% gross return, underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index (+1.12%) and the S&P 500 (+2.66%), as concentrated mega‑cap leadership and AI valuation concerns drove market volatility. The fund faced headwinds from market rotation and valuation pressures but remained disciplined in its investment approach, focusing on companies with durable competitive advantages and diversified earnings. Portfolio adjustments were made to optimize long-term growth potential, and despite short-term challenges, the fund maintains a constructive medium- to long-term outlook, expecting broader market opportunities beyond narrow leadership trends to support balanced returns for investors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen Capital Management Llc highlighted stocks like Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL). Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is an enterprise software company that detracted from performance due to investor concerns over execution risk. The one-month return of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) was -10.27% while its shares traded between $118.86 and $345.72 over the last 52 weeks. On January 27, 2026, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) stock closed at approximately $174.90 per share, with a market capitalization of about $529.461 billion.
Polen Capital Management Llc stated the following regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) in its Polen Focus Growth Strategy’s Q4 2025 investor letter:
“Our software holdings were market laggards, especially Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) (discussed below) even though virtually all of them are growing their revenue and earnings at or above our expectations (especially Oracle). We remain focused on competitive advantages and long-term business fundamentals. In that regard, we are pleased with the Portfolio’s construction for long-term compounding.
The largest relative detractors in the quarter were Oracle, Apple (not owned), and Zoetis. The largest absolute detractors were Oracle, ServiceNow, and Microsoft. The primary drag for the quarter was Oracle, accounting for almost all of the Portfolio’s relative underperformance in Q4, completely reversing its performance from the prior quarter and giving back all of the gains experienced in Q3. In line with waning market enthusiasm in the AI trade, Oracle’s massive increase in RPO’s (remaining performance obligations, which are essentially contracted future revenues) have been met with increased skepticism given the large percentage which is tied to OpenAI and the associated question marks over OpenAI’s ability to finance itself and therefore make good on those commitments. It would appear that investors are focused on the increasing threats of execution risk and financing risk for both Oracle and OpenAI, as opposed to the excitement of prior quarters around the magnitude of the numbers. While we recognize and acknowledge these risks, it is our belief that the range of potential outcomes are skewed positively in Oracle’s favor and that the stock reaction is another example of the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mindset of the market today and so retain conviction in our exposure.”
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 122 hedge fund portfolios held Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) at the end of the third quarter, which was 124 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) 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 Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and shared the list of stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer. 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.
