Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s Net return was 9.8% compared to the Standard & Poor’s Index’s 7.5%, Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 14.4%, and Russell 1000 Value Index’s 1.0% return for the same period. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Wedgewood Partners highlighted stocks First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) is a financial company that operates through Commercial Banking and Wealth Management segments. On April 14, 2023, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock closed at $13.12 per share. One-month return of First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) was 7.72%, and its shares lost 91.77% of their value over the last 52 weeks. First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) has a market capitalization of $2.443 billion.
Wedgewood Partners made the following comment about First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) was a significant detractor from performance during the quarter. The Company is a retail bank with a sterling underwriting track record headquartered in Northern California. First Republic became collateral damage in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which – unlike First Republic – is a commercial bank, but like First Republic happens to be headquartered in Northern California. Regardless of how irrational it was for depositors to panic and pull their deposits from First Republic, the long-term damage to the Company’s franchise is real and we have not added to our positions in First Republic since Silicon Valley Bank’s failure. We rarely invest in banks. First Republic was the only bank in our large cap portfolios in the past decade. We were attracted to First Republic because it was one of the most responsibly run banking outfits in the country, and it also happened to be growing. This compares to our large cap growth investment universe that is bereft of banks because most banks have been regulated into providing commodity-like levels of service, while barely posting GDP-like loan growth against a monetary The Hunger Games backdrop of de-minimis nominal and real yields. After First Republic it is unlikely that we will consider investing in banks for the foreseeable future, or at least until regulatory and market structures change…” (Please click here to read the full text)
Vintage Tone/Shutterstock.com
First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter.
We discussed First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in another article and shared the list of best 52-week low stocks to buy. 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 Best Places in New York for Young Adults
- 10 Best Education Stocks To Buy In 2023
- 10 Undervalued Lithium Stocks to Buy Now
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
