Aoris Investment Management, a specialist international equity manager, released its Q1 2026 investor letter for “Aoris International Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The fund invests in high-quality, wealth-generating businesses managed by prudent and capable teams, targeting an annual return of 8–12% after fees over a 5–7-year market cycle. During the March quarter, international equity markets, as represented by the MSCI AC World Accumulation Index ex Australia, decreased by 5.8% in AUD terms. In local currencies, the decline was 2.8%. The Portfolio’s Class A (Unhedged) returned -13.7% after fees, underperforming its benchmark by 7.8%, while the Class C (Hedged) dropped 10.1%, 7.3% less than its benchmark. These results marked significant negative returns overall and against the benchmark. Investor concerns grew in the quarter, especially regarding how AI could impact the software, data, and services sectors. Additionally, reviewing the Fund’s top five holdings could help identify its best picks for 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Aoris Investment Management mentioned stocks like The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW). The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) is a leading manufacturer and distributor of paint, coatings, and related products to professional, industrial, commercial and retail customers. On June 23, 2026, The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) closed at $322.90 per share. One-month return of The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) was 4.17%, and its shares lost 6.03% over the past 52 weeks. The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) has a market capitalization of $79.64 billion.
Aoris Investment Management stated the following regarding The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) is a leading provider of paints and coatings, with a particularly strong position with professional painters in the US. A key driver of the paint market is the volume of property sales, as homes are often repainted after they’re purchased. Higher mortgage rates and lower population growth in the US have meant the number of property sales has been weak in recent years, affecting Sherwin-Williams’ paint volumes.
Growth in its industrial coatings business has also been weak due to a sluggish industrial economy. Even though Sherwin-Williams has continued to grow its market share, we have become concerned that its end markets are structurally slower growing. We also had the opportunity to purchase a higher quality business in Cintas at a wider discount to fair value.”
The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 73 hedge fund portfolios held The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) at the end of the first quarter, compared to 83 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) 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 The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) and shared the list of best building materials stocks to buy for the residential recovery. 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.
