Middle Coast Investing, an investment advisor firm, released its first-quarter investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Middle Coast Investing had a difficult but manageable first quarter, but everyone has suffered since the Liberation Day crash at the beginning of the second quarter. To manage the volatility, the firm decided to increase cash goal levels by roughly 5% for each portfolio. In the quarter, the firm sold 3% more than it bought. In Q1 2025, the US Portfolios returned -3.7% compared to -4.6% for the S&P 500. It’s Core U.S. portfolios returned -0.7% while Russell 2000 returned -9.8%, S&P 600 returned -9.3% and Nasdaq generated -10.4% for the same period. However, its European Portfolios appreciated by 9.2%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first quarter 2025 investor letter, Middle Coast Investing emphasized stocks such as Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP). Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is an online travel company. The one-month return of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) was -19.92%, and its shares lost 53.31% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 15, 2025, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) stock closed at $11.86 per share with a market capitalization of $1.66 billion.
Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Vimeo and Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) reported earnings around the same time and faced the same market reaction, for similar reasons, I think. Each saw takeover interest last year. Each has a unit or strategy that is growing fast – enterprise sales for Vimeo, Viator for TripAdvisor – that is leading the business, but also a declining legacy business that is hurting overall sales growth. I think investors hoped that both companies would have either news about a sale or some sort of ‘we plan to batten down the hatches and wait for profitability’ statement, rather than ‘we plan to grow in 2025 and 2026,’ which is essentially what both said. Growth requires investment.
Vimeo’s business isn’t affected by tariffs per se, but we’ll see how essential their video software services are to businesses in a tight spending climate2. If travel spend goes down, TripAdvisor will suffer, but travel is a secular, long-term theme, and TripAdvisor should do ok even if there is less cross-border travel into/out of the U.S.”
A family boarding an airplane with their suitcases, symbolic of the company’s reach into the global travel industry.
Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 34 in the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tripadvisor, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TRIP) consolidated revenue increased 5% to $411 million. While we acknowledge the potential of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) 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 cheapest AI stock.
We covered Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) in another article, where we shared Middle Coast Investing’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.