Andvari Associates, an investment management firm, released its first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter the fund returned 7.2% net of fees compared to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF’s 4.3% decline. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2025.
In its first quarter 2025 investor letter, Andvari Associates emphasized stocks such as Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO). Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is a US-based smokeable and oral tobacco products manufacturer. The one-month return of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) was -4.05%, and its shares gained 35.60% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 9, 2025, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) stock closed at $56.36 per share with a market capitalization of $94.739 billion.
Andvari Associates stated the following regarding Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Last year, Andvari made its first investments in tobacco companies with the purchase of Philip Morris International and Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO). At the time of our purchase, Philip Morris and Altria had underperformed the S&P 500 over the prior 5- and 10-year periods. Both traded at low valuations and with high dividend yields. But thanks to following the industry o and on for 10+ years, and thanks to many discussions with long-time shareholders of the companies, Andvari felt the time was right to make the plunge. The timing could not have been much better for us as both companies have so far contributed positively to Andvari’s recent overall performance.
The problem—or the feature, depending on your perspective—with the tobacco industry has been a declining population of cigarette smokers in developed countries. Over the last four or five years, the decline in these smoking populations has accelerated, which in part explains the poor share performance of the tobacco companies between 2017 and 2023. Despite this, the tobacco companies have maintained, or slowly increased, their revenues and profits with regular price increases on cigarettes…” (Click here to read the full text)
A close-up of an assembly line with a blend of tobacco products.
Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 47 hedge fund portfolios held Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 32 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) 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 Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) in another article, where we shared the list of most profitable stocks that pay dividends. 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.