Heartland Advisors, an investment management firm, published its “Heartland Value Plus Fund” fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be seen here. According to the fund, the migration into large-cap companies that started midyear continued during the quarter but shares of smaller businesses still posted solid returns for the period. Stock selection for the portfolio was mixed, and the strategy was up on an absolute basis but modestly lagged its benchmark, the Russell 2000® Value Index. Holdings in Information Technology (IT) and Materials were up on both an absolute and relative but couldn’t overcome weakness in Financials. Holdings in Health Care were down but outperformed the benchmark average for the group. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Heartland Value Plus Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned TriMas Corporation (NASDAQ: TRS) and discussed its stance on the firm. TriMas Corporation is a Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based manufacturing company with a $1.4 billion market capitalization. TRS delivered a -9.22% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 1.57%. The stock closed at $33.59 per share on February 3, 2022.
Here is what Heartland Value Plus Fund has to say about TriMas Corporation in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Re-engineered. While investors fixated on inflation and supply chain disruptions throughout the economy, our team remained focused on those companies that were executing at a high level or were positioning themselves to grow margins through internally focused efforts. TriMas Corp. (TRS) is an example of this approach.
TriMas, a manufacturer and distributor of engineered packaging, aerospace, and industrial products, has been focused on improving margins by adjusting its business mix through a combination of strategic acquisitions and divestitures. The efforts have resulted in growth in its packaging and aerospace units and deemphasis on its lower-margin lines.
TriMas has enjoyed strong sales growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, but profit margins have been stunted due to supply chain disruptions and rising input costs. With prices for resin, a key ingredient in the company’s products, beginning to ease, we expect margins and earnings to rise going forward.”
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Our calculations show that TriMas Corporation (NASDAQ: TRS) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. TRS was in 8 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 13 funds in the previous quarter. TriMas Corporation (NASDAQ: TRS) delivered a -5.83% return in the past 3 months.
In January 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on TRS 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.
