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 Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG). Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) is a US based contracting services provider. The one-month return of Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) was 2.26%, and YTD its shares lost 41.38% of their value. On April 15, 2025, Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) stock closed at $38.54 per share with a market capitalization of $1.966 billion.
Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) – I mentioned this briefly last quarter. We had a small position in a spin-off from MDU Resources, a utility company, and sold that position not long into Q1 at $70/share. The stock dived after its earnings report underwhelmed the market, and then further due to sector worries. We bought between $39 and $48, and the stock finished the quarter at $37.09.
Everus primarily builds power lines, pipelines, and similar infrastructure. It is based in North Dakota but operates everywhere in the U.S. except New England and Wisconsin. Providing construction services means it should be able to maintain decent gross margins, since it aligns its costs to each given project. It is levered to demand for power and energy infrastructure, which is needed in the United States. Its revenue backlog grew 38% in 2024 and is nearly equal to 2024 revenue (not all of that backlog will be realized in 2025, but also, 2024 revenue was 41% higher than 2023 year-end backlog). It has been a steady grower for the past five years. This is the sort of business that gets a good multiple, and in a stable environment is worth in the $60s or $70s (around where we first sold it)…” (Click here to read the full text)
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Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 39 hedge fund portfolios held Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 0 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) 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 Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE:ECG) in another article, where we shared the list of construction stocks those are plunging in 2025. 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.