Harding Loevner, an asset management company, released its “Global Equity Strategy” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned 2.62% gross (2.52% net) in the third quarter of 2025, compared to a 7.74% return for the MSCI All Country World Index and 7.36% gain for the MSCI World Index. YTD, the strategy rose 10.61% (net) compared to 18.86% and 17.83% for the indexes. The firm highlighted in the letter that the last six months represented one of the strongest momentum phases in over 70 years. Since the beginning of the year, high-momentum stocks have outperformed low-momentum stocks by a remarkable 45 percentage points, with much of the growth driven by advancements in AI. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Harding Loevner Global Equity Strategy highlighted stocks such as The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD). Headquartered in Ventura, California, The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) is a technology company that offers a self-service cloud-based ad-buying platform. The one-month return of The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) was -8.49%, and its shares lost 71.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 04, 2025, The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) stock closed at $39.35 per share, with a market capitalization of $19.24 billion.
Harding Loevner Global Equity Strategy stated the following regarding The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Al, in our view, is a real secular change that is going to reshape Industries. But it also represents a broad source of uncertainty in today’s markets. Its impact could be incremental or profoundly disruptive, and that breadth of possibilities leaves historical company fundamentals as a less reliable guide to long-term future value. Markets have instead leaned on narratives, rewarding companies perceived as central to the buildout of Al and penalizing those that don’t fit the story. Oracle, a stock we don’t hold, and The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD), one that we do, highlight the divergence.
Shares of The Trade Desk tumbled as softer-than-expected guidance added to fears over increased competition for digital-advertising budgets from Amazon Prime (which announced a partnership with Netflix) and new Al-based ad models.
The Trade Desk: Companies use their digital platform to purchase advertising space on websites, streaming-TV apps digital billboards, and more. The company projected 14% revenue growth for the third quarter, modestly below the market’s expectations. Even though 14% is still a robust growth rate by most standards, the muted forecast caused the stock to fall sharply. Some of the concerns are valid. The Trade Desk faces rising competition from Amazon.com, and there’s the possibility that banner ads on the open internet are eventually overtaken by Al chatbots, which could increasingly become the gatekeepers to websites and lace ads into their own text responses. However, we think the company is well positioned to benefit from the secular growth in digital advertising. Its platform is differentiated, not just in the underlying technology, but also because it is independent, unlike large media companies such as Alphabet or Meta Platforms, which funnel ad dollars to their own apps and services. The Trade Desk’s reach is also strong with streaming-TV services. and so as more viewers cut the cord, the roughly US$150 billion that advertisers spend on traditional TV will likely continue making its way into The Trade Desk’s coffers.
The contrast is instructive. Oracle was rewarded for suddenly having an Al story to tell. The Trade Desk may have been punished to an excessive degree because it doesn’t have one, even though its core business is growing healthily and there’s a reasonably compelling case for that to continue. In both instances, speculation and momentum seemed to contribute to outsize price moves.”
The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) at the end of the third quarter, which was 60 in the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2025, The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) reported revenue of $739 million, representing an 18% year-over-year growth. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) 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 Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTD) and shared Brown Advisory Large-Cap Growth Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.
