Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Focus Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The first quarter of 2026 was highly volatile for US equities, driven by AI disruption concerns and the US-Israel conflict in Iran and the Middle East. In this backdrop, the Polen Focus Growth Strategy declined 17.16% in the quarter, compared to a -9.78% return for the Russell 1000 Growth and -4.33% return for the S&P 500. The Strategy focuses on mission-critical businesses with recurring revenue and competitive advantages and capitalizes on the volatility to increase investments in software and semiconductor companies. The Strategy remains confident in the long-term potential of the Portfolio, emphasizing businesses with strong economic moats, robust balance sheets, and multi-year earnings growth. In addition, please check the Strategy’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Polen Focus Growth Strategy highlighted Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) as a newly added position. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is a leading semiconductor equipment company that supplies semiconductor processing equipment for the fabrication of integrated circuits. On April 28, 2026, Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) closed at $251.23 per share. One-month return of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) was 13.16%, and its shares gained 250.54% over the past 52 weeks. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) has a market capitalization of $314.18 billion.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“We initiated a new position in Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) for the Portfolio, recognizing the company as a critical supplier of etch and deposition equipment used by semiconductor manufacturers to remove and deposit materials on silicon wafers. Lam’s competitive advantage stems from its ability to tightly integrate hardware and software solutions tailored to customer needs, alongside high switching costs driven by the risk of production disruption and lengthy development cycles, which create durable vendor lock-in once a manufacturer standardizes on its tools. This has resulted in stable market share and expanding margins supported by economies of scale. We believe Lam is well positioned to benefit from overlapping investment cycles in memory and datacenters tied to AI, potentially providing extended revenue visibility through 2027 and beyond.”
Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 104 hedge fund portfolios held Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 93 in the previous quarter. Lam Research Corporation’s (NASDAQ:LRCX) revenue for the March quarter of 2026 was $5.84 billion, representing a 9% increase sequentially and a 24% increase compared to Q1 2025. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) 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 Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and shared the list of best memory stocks to buy according to analysts. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 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.
