YCG LLC, an asset management firm, released its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the quarter, the S&P 500 Index returned 2.66%, and the S&P Global Broad Market Index returned 3.22%. The global stock market currently favors speculation and high-risk investor behavior, driven by a concentration of AI-themed stocks, a trend in which unprofitable companies outperform profitable ones, a decline in high-quality stocks, a momentum-driven market, and alpha generation from heavily shorted stocks. As long-term investors, the portfolio consists of dominant and resilient high-quality stocks. High-quality companies have historically recovered strongly after sharp relative downturns, supporting the firm’s patience. The firm strongly believes its focus on high-quality companies with periodic, opportunistic rebalancing, built on lasting behavioral advantages, is expected to provide good risk-adjusted returns in the long run. Please review the firm’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, YCG Investments highlighted stocks like Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN). Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a chemical company and a leading provider of industrial gases. On March 06, 2026, Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) stock closed at $484.74 per share. One-month return of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) was 6.22%, and its shares gained 4.91% over the past 52 weeks. Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) has a market capitalization of $224.626 billion.
YCG Investments stated the following regarding Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is the largest industrial gas company in the world with operations in more than 80 countries. Companies in the industrial gas business capture air and separate it into its component parts (oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, helium, and carbon dioxide). These gases touch virtually all industries, making revenues durable as they serve mission-critical functions in various industries such as manufacturing, food & beverage, electronics, metals & mining, chemicals, refining, clean energy, and healthcare. For instance, hospitals require medical oxygen for their patients, clean energy manufacturing processes require hydrogen, and semiconductor chip fabrication requires a wide array of ultra-high purity gases.
Because of typical economies of scale as well as specific physics based dynamics in industrial gas plants (where relative energy loss declines as the size of the plant increases), large plants are far more efficient than small ones. Additionally, because industrial gases are cheap to produce but incredibly expensive to transport, gas plants almost always must be located close to their customers…” (Click here to read the full text)
Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 89 hedge fund portfolios held Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 76 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) 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 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) and shared Aristotle Growth Equity Fund’s views 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.
