Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Global SMID Company Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The portfolio returned 9.05% gross and 8.89% net of fees in the first quarter compared to a 4.28% return on the MSCI ACWI SMID Capitalization Index. Stock selection and sector allocation led the strategy to outperform in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Polen Global SMID Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) provides life science products and services. On June 21, 2023, Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) stock closed at $45.39 per share. One-month return of Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) was 9.35%, and its shares lost 37.20% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) has a market capitalization of $2.958 billion.
Polen Global SMID Company Growth Strategy made the following comment about Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) in its first quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Our most significant detractors from performance included Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA), Netcompany and Endava on both an absolute and relative basis.
We sold out of Azenta, a company we bought in June 2022. The original buy thesis was that the company could grow organically at a high-teens rate per annum, expand operating margins, and deploy its $2.5B of cash opportunistically in either M&A or buybacks. Cash represented well over 50% of the company’s market capitalization at the time. It was our view that we had a company that was misunderstood given the transition from a Semiconductor company (Brooks Automation) to a Life Science company with great assets. Fundamental performance has been disappointing since our investment; the company pre-announced shortly after our initial purchase, blaming disruptions from China’s lockdowns, and dismissed their COO and a senior sales leader. In the ensuing quarters they reported organic revenue that disappointed with margins moving in the wrong direction. It’s possible that the management team fixes the issues and our sale is poorly timed, however there are plenty of high-quality businesses with attractive valuation elsewhere and we are choosing to deploy the capital where we have higher confidence in both management and a path to great returns.”
Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com
Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 25 hedge fund portfolios held Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) at the end of the first quarter 2023 which was 26 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Azenta, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZTA) in another article and shared Conestoga Small Cap Strategy’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
Suggested Articles:
- 16 Largest Silicon Producers in the World
- 10 Tech Stocks Benefiting From The AI Boom
- 15 Most Profitable Xbox Games in the World
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
