Is Avalara (AVLR) A Smart Long-Term Buy?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Mid Cap Growth Strategy” third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the third quarter, the ClearBridge Mid Cap Growth Strategy outperformed the benchmark Russell Midcap Growth Index. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across seven of the 10 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter (out of 11 sectors total), with the IT and health care sectors the leading contributors. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

ClearBridge Mid Cap Growth Strategy, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Avalara, Inc. (NYSE: AVLR) and discussed its stance on the firm. Avalara, Inc. is a Seattle, Washington-based software company with a $10.5 billion market capitalization. AVLR delivered a -5.89% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -25.91%. The stock closed at $121.50 per share on January 04, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Mid Cap Growth Strategy has to say about Avalara, Inc.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“We added a position in Avalara, in the IT sector, a name we are familiar with from owning in another strategy. Avalara is a software maker providing cloud-based solutions for transaction tax compliance across global markets. The company supports the growth of e-commerce by addressing the complexities of tax calculations and return processing across different tax jurisdictions. Growth drivers include partnerships with Shopify and integration of its software into Adobe and Salesforce platforms.”

Photo by Danial Igdery on Unsplash

Based on our calculations, Avalara, Inc. (NYSE: AVLR) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. AVLR was in 24 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 29 funds in the previous quarter. Avalara, Inc. (NYSE: AVLR) delivered a -27.79% return in the past 3 months.

In October 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on AVLR in another article. You can find more than 100 investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q3 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.