Hardman Johnston Global Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Hardman Johnston Large Cap Equity Strategy” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy returned -6.49%, net of fees, in the quarter compared to a -4.27% return for the S&P 500 Total Returns Index. In the quarter, the disruptive policies disrupted the economic outlook, and the equity market fell sharply at the end of the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Hardman Johnston Large Cap Equity Strategy highlighted stocks such as Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT). Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) provides critical digital infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. The one-month return of Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) was 9.61%, and its shares gained 22.31% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 17, 2025, Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) stock closed at $116.61 per share with a market capitalization of $44.441 billion.
Hardman Johnston Large Cap Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Additionally, the portfolio’s off-benchmark position in Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) contributed negatively, with a return of -36.4% for Q1’25. Shares in VRT underperformed largely due to ongoing fears of a data center capex bubble after the introduction of DeepSeek. Vertiv reported a very solid Q4’24 beat, but this was overshadowed by the ongoing deceleration in new orders, which were only flat year-over-year and sequentially down. Such a deceleration should be expected given the blistering pace of order growth over the past 2 years, but the emergence of DeepSeek has complicated the interpretation. VRT remains a core beneficiary of data center investment given its full suite of thermal equipment, electrical equipment and services.”
A close-up of a group of technicians working on complex data center systems.
Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 90 hedge fund portfolios held Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) at the end of the first quarter, which was 92 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.
In another article, we covered Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) and shared the list of AI stocks every investor should be watching. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. While we acknowledge the potential of VRT as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
