ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Large Cap Value Strategy” third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy outperformed its Russell 1000 Value Index benchmark during the third quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains in six of 11 sectors in which it was invested for the quarter. The strongest contributions came from the financials and consumer discretionary sectors. The industrials, materials, and health care sectors were the main detractors. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.
ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE: VRT) and discussed its stance on the firm. Vertiv Holdings Co is a Columbus, Ohio-based holding company with a $9.1 billion market capitalization. VRT delivered a -2.36% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 31.64%. The stock closed at $24.38 per share on January 03, 2022
Here is what ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy has to say about Vertiv Holdings Co in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“The quarter was in many ways a tale of two cyclical areas of the market. Financials gained amid a goldilocks scenario where interest rates looked poised to rise gradually while a strong economy and healthy balance sheets supported historically low credit losses. Whereas financials are relative beneficiaries of gradually rising interest rates potentially driven by higher inflation, industrials and materials are feeling the pinch of broadbased supply chain pressures such as shipping costs, semiconductor shortages, scarcity of labor and wage pressure, as well as raw material inflation.
Such was the case with Vertiv, a market leader in thermal and power management solutions for the data center, communications infrastructure and industrial markets. After a +36% gain in share price in the second quarter, Vertiv saw unexpectedly strong inflationary cost pressures from air freight and chip shortages extend into the third quarter and is seeing near-term margin pressure from previously priced orders. From a demand standpoint, the company continues to see its backlog increase with hyperscale and telecom customers, while enterprise demand continues to improve. Vertiv benefits from attractive end markets as hyperscalers such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Alphabet and Facebook continue to build data centers needed to support cloud migration and broader digital transformation across various industries.”
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Based on our calculations, Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE: VRT) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. VRT was in 36 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 36 funds in the previous quarter. Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE: VRT) delivered a 2.61% return in the past 3 months.
Earlier this year, we also shared ClearBridge‘s Q2 2021 views on VRT 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.
