Richie Capital Group, an equity investment firm, released its first-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The RCG Select Alpha strategy gained +12.2% and the RCG Long Short strategy lost 4.5% in the first quarter, while their respective benchmarks, the Russell 2500 Index and the Equity Long Short Index, gained +3.4% and +2.0%, respectively. The Top 10 Strategy gained +4.2% compared to +7.5% for the S&P 500 Index. The collapse of SVB and further financial sector contagion impacted the small and midcap stocks in the quarter as the volatility rose more than 30% while the large-cap funds remained relatively stable. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Richie Capital Group highlighted stocks like MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) is an investment decision support tools provider for clients. On April 11, 2023, MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) stock closed at $529.67 per share. One-month return of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was -1.32%, and its shares gained 7.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) has a market capitalization of $42.407 billion.
Richie Capital Group made the following comment about MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) (MSCI Inc up +20.6%) – MSCI was a top performer in the first quarter supported by a strong Q4 earnings report, an optimistic outlook for 2023, and a flurry of bullish sell-side analyst reports. MSCI has proved to be a diversified all-weather franchise, increasing organic revenue by 9% in 2022 despite a volatile year that saw the S&P 500 closing down -18% after reaching depths as low as -25%. MSCI management appears optimistic based on their projected 4% to 10% increase in free cash flow for 2023.
Growth in the ESG and climate segment is a major growth lever for MSCI and will be a focus for investors in 2023 and beyond. Longer-term, management believes this segment will grow at a mid to high 20% rate. This is an ambitious target for a segment that is already generating $228 million in revenue, but we believe it to be achievable. MSCI is an underappreciated ESG beneficiary and is positioned to benefit from the ESG movement. There is a growing trend for companies such as EV manufacturers and alternative energy providers to market themselves as ESG. They will rely on MSCI to assist them in providing measurable and concrete ESG characteristics and data to support these claims.
We believe MSCI is a proven compounder with leading offerings in both the lucrative index data field and the emergent ESG data industry. This “compounder” quality is reflected in that approximately 97% of revenue is recurring, they have an attractive cash flow generation profile, and a history of creating value for shareholders with double digit annual EPS growth since 2014.”
Creative Collage Of Business Team Working On Project And Stock Markets Data On Trasparent Screen, Financial Statistics Layered Over Man Using Laptop For Trading On Forex, Panorama
MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 47 in the previous quarter.
We discussed MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in another article and shared the list of high growth non-tech stocks that are profitable. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
