Ariel Investments, an investment management firm, published its fourth-quarter 2020 ‘Ariel Fund’, ‘Ariel Appreciation Fund’, ‘Ariel Focus Fund’, ‘Ariel International Fund’, and ‘Ariel Global Fund’ Investor Letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter of 2020, a return of 31.56% was recorded by Ariel fund, 23.57% by Ariel Appreciation Fund, 21.62% by Ariel Focus Fund, 8.26% by Ariel International Fund, and 9.80% return by Ariel Global Fund. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.
Ariel Investments, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, emphasized their Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) position. Lockheed Martin Corporation is a Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace company. It currently has a $95.3 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, LMT delivered a -4.20% return, and in March 8, 2021, it closed at $341.45 per share.
Here is what Ariel Investments has to say about Lockheed Martin Corporation in their Q4 2020 investor letter:
“Lockheed Martin Corporation declined -7% in the quarter. Generally, the market expects less defense spending under Democratic administrations. Furthermore, defense stocks are considered “safe/non-cyclicals” less harmed by the COVID-19 economic downturn and less buoyed by an economic reopening. As a result, Lockheed outperformed the market as we went into the downturn in March but underperformed as we rallied in the fall and winter.”
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Our calculations show that Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Lockheed Martin Corporation was in 53 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 47 funds in the third quarter.
The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
