ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Mid Cap Strategy” first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Mid Cap Strategy outperformed its Russell Midcap Index during the first quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across 10 of the 11 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter.. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.
ClearBridge Investments, in its Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), and shared their insights on the company. Expedia Inc. is a Seattle, Washington-based online travel shopping company that currently has a $25.7 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, EXPE delivered a 28.97% return, extending its 12-month gains to 89.98%. As of June 03, 2021, the stock closed at $170.75 per share.
Here is what ClearBridge Investments has to say about Expedia Inc. in its Q1 2021 investor letter:
“Several of our better performers in the first quarter were purchased while their business models were under stress from COVID restrictions or the macro environment the pandemic created. What gave us confidence in purchasing Expedia were the actions the company took to extend out their balance sheets until travel resumed. It should benefit as a broader vaccination rollout prompts cruise lines to resume operations and consumers to start traveling again and are positioned to deliver better margins and gain pricing power as the economy normalizes due to the cost controls implemented during the downturn.”
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Our calculations show that Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the first quarter of 2021, Expedia Inc. was in 86 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 76 funds in the fourth quarter of 2020. EXPE delivered a 7.79% return in the past 3 months.
The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
