Longleaf Partners, managed by Southeastern Asset Management, released its “Small-Cap Fund” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Longleaf experienced several environments throughout its experience in small-cap investing. This year, the underlying developments in the Fund’s holdings were more promising than the actual stock price returns when compared to the target of inflation plus 10% and the unusual performance of the Russell 2000. In Q4 2025, the Fund returned 1.13% compared to 2.40% for the Russell 3000 Index and 2.19% for the Russell 2000 Index. The Fund’s yearly return was 7.56% compared to 17.15% and 12.81% return for the indexes, respectively. In 2025, Southeastern demonstrated strong performance by protecting investments during market volatility, emphasizing the value of owning solid, free cash flow-generating companies over speculative fads. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Longleaf Partners Small-Cap Fund highlighted stocks The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM). The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) is an alcohol beverage company known for its Samuel Adams Boston Lager. On February 24, 2026, The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) stock closed at $227.45 per share. One-month return of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) was 6.61%, and its shares lost 5.76% over the past 52 weeks. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) has a market capitalization of $2.477 billion.
Longleaf Partners Small-Cap Fund stated the following regarding The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) – Alcoholic beverage company Boston Beer was a detractor for the year as alcohol consumption faced headwinds. Volume declines at Twisted Tea, the company’s largest brand, weighed on the stock. Twisted’s pricing had gotten a little overextended, but the company is actively working to fix this problem and has also successfully fended off numerous competitors that entered the hard tea space over the last few years. Additionally, Truly is still having difficulty returning to growth after multiple difficult years but is now a much smaller part of the company. Boston Beer has continually proven itself as one of the best innovators in the industry, as shown again by its new and successful vodka-based product Sun Cruiser, which is in the process of a national rollout and will be key to getting the company back to growth. We have been pleased by the speed at which management has corrected margin problems that arose in the aftermath of the hard seltzer boom, and we still believe there is further room for improvement. Founder Jim Koch stepped back into the CEO seat in August for the first time in almost 25 years after former CEO Michael Spillane stepped down. The company still has a net cash position and is one of our largest share repurchasers. We think repurchase is a great use of capital for a consumer packaged goods company with quality brands that trades at 1x revenue, all at a time that it could be an acquisition target amidst industry consolidation.”
The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 37 hedge fund portfolios held The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 33 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) 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 Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE:SAM) and shared a bullish thesis on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 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.
