Smoak Capital Management Sold XPEL (XPEL) Due to Valuation Concerns

Smoak Capital Management, LLC, an investment management firm, released its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In 2023, the fund’s net return was 14.9%, which was lower than the S&P 500’s full-year return of 26.2%. During the last few months of the year, there was a significant disparity in performance, which was caused by the broader market’s rally due to predictions of interest rate cuts in 2024. Even though it didn’t match the S&P 500 or previous years, it was still a good year for the fund. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.

Smoak Capital Management featured stocks such as XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) manufactures and distributes after-market automotive products. On January 30, 2024, XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) stock closed at $54.08 per share. One-month return of XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) was 4.60%, and its shares lost 31.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) has a market capitalization of $1.494 billion.

Smoak Capital Management stated the following regarding XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“FitLife, XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL), and Citizens Bancshares were the strongest performers of our portfolio during 2023. We exited Xpel in August due to valuation concerns as well as wanting capital for other attractive opportunities. In retrospect, we were quite lucky with our timing. Not long after, a couple short seller reports came out on Xpel driving investor sentiment and the stock price down based on what we believe are faulty assumptions. This gave us another welcome opportunity to pick up Xpel shares under $50.”

An experienced mechanic installing a headlight protection kit on a car in a garage.

XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 14 hedge fund portfolios held XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) at the end of third quarter which was 13 in the previous quarter.

We discussed XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) in another article and shared Plural Investing’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.