ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Small Cap Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy outperformed the Russell 2000 Index, the Strategy’s benchmark, during the fourth quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy posted gains in nine of 11 sectors in which it was invested for the quarter. The primary contributors to the Strategy’s performance were the financials, materials, and IT sectors. The communication services sector was the main detractor from performance. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
ClearBridge Investments Small Cap Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 2008, 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) is a Lanham, Maryland-based educational technology company with a $1.0 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Christopher J. Paucek. 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) delivered a -30.29% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -65.26%. The stock closed at $13.99 per share on April 04, 2022.
Here is what ClearBridge Investments Small Cap Strategy has to say about 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“The lingering pandemic continues to cause volatility across sectors. Among detractors for the quarter, after online education tech company 2U received a boost from the move to online education at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, attention has now turned to a tight labor market that has historically led to softer enrollments. Although 2U exceeded third-quarter expectations and closed on its acquisition of edX in the fourth quarter, weak results from educational services provider Chegg seemingly confirmed the market’s enrollment concerns and weighed on 2U. Nevertheless, we continue to believe the longterm prospects for 2U are much brighter than are embedded in the stock today.”
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Our calculations show that 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) was in 21 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 22 funds in the previous quarter. 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) delivered a -28.44% return in the past 3 months.
In December 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
