Fiduciary Management Inc. (FMI), an independent money management firm, released its first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. A global banking crisis and severe financial market volatility affected the market in the first quarter of 2023. The FMI Large Cap Strategy gained 4.0% (net) in the first quarter compared to a 7.50% increase in the S&P 500 Index and a 0.93% gain in the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF. The FMI Small Cap Strategy gained 7.6% (net) compared to a 2.74% gain in the Russell 2000 Index and a 0.66% decline in the Russell 2000 Value Index in the same period. The FMI All Cap Equity gained 5.1% (net) compared to 7.07% for the iShares Russell 3000 ETF and the FMI International Strategies gained 9.8% (net) on a currency-hedged basis and 10.6% (net) on a currency unhedged basis in the initial quarter of 2023. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
FMI highlighted stocks like Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) provides online travel and restaurant booking services. On April 11, 2023, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) stock closed at $2,566.47 per share. One-month return of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was 6.24%, and its shares gained 13.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) has a market capitalization of $96.623 billion.
FMI made the following comment about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is the world’s largest online travel agency. It has a network effect business model, where Booking acts as an aggregator of supply (independent hotels) on one side and demand (leisure travelers) on the other. This aggregation of fragmented supply and demand allows them to charge a healthy 15% commission when a user books a room. It also allows them to outspend all other players on customer acquisition while still earning good returns on ad spend. Given Booking has to invest very little tangible capital, ROIC is over 80%. Booking has tremendous scale as the global number one. Booking is a capital light business in a secularly growing industry, has a net cash balance sheet, and a solid management team. Travel continues to recover, with particular improvement in Europe (over 70% of sales), and Booking is taking market share from competitors. We find ~17 times normalized earnings (2024E) to be a punitive valuation. We believe Booking has a long runway for growth when the dust fully settles after COVID and the Ukraine war.”
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Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is in 21st position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 83 hedge fund portfolios held Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 92 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in another article and shared the list of best consumer discretionary stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 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.
