Aristotle Capital Management, an independent/employee-owned investment management organization, published its “Global Equity Fund” first quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. For the first quarter of 2022, Aristotle Capital’s Global Equity Composite posted a total U.S. dollar return of -9.19% gross of fees (-9.28% net of fees), compared to the MSCI World Index, which returned -5.15%, and the MSCI ACWI Index, which returned -5.36%. Try to spend some time looking at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Aristotle Capital Management Global Equity mentioned Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2014, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) is a Deerfield, Illinois-based pharmaceutical company with a $37.1 billion market capitalization. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) delivered a -17.48% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -18.85%. The stock closed at $43.04 per share on May 26, 2022.
Here is what Aristotle Capital Management Global Equity has to say about Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“We first invested in Walgreens Boots Alliance in early 2013. Over our holding period, Walgreens merged with U.K.-based Boots Alliance, establishing itself as a global leading retail pharmacy chain. CEO Stefano Pessina set the company on a path of pursuing strategic partnerships (as opposed to vertical integration deals) to increase store traffic and to, over time, transform the business into a neighborhood health destination around a more modern pharmacy. Using its strong FREE cash flow generation, the company ramped up its investments in technology, aiming to accelerate the digitalization of health information. Mr. Pessina was not successful, however, at turning around the firm’s U.S. retail segment and had to deal with increasing prescription drug reimbursement pressures. He stepped down as CEO in 2020, and in 2021, Roz Brewer took the reins of the firm. We admire Ms. Brewer’s impressive track record at companies that include Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Walmart (Sam’s Club). However, given management’s decision to divest core cash-generative businesses and redeploy capital to embryonic healthcare startups, we prefer to step aside while we follow the company’s progress.”
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Our calculations show that Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) was in 38 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to 42 funds in the previous quarter. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) delivered a -4.93% return in the past 3 months.
In December 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
