Is Warby Parker (WRBY) A Smart Long-Term Buy?

Polen Capital, an investment management firm, published its “Polen U.S. Small Company Growth” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. For the fourth quarter, the Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Composite Portfolio (the “Portfolio”) returned 1.59% gross and 1.34% net of fees, outperforming the 0.01% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the “Index”). The Portfolio also produced solid results over the full year, on both an absolute basis and relative to the Index return of 2.83%. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 2010, Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) is a United States-based consumer eyewear retailer with a $2.7 billion market capitalization and is currently spearheaded by its CEOs, Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa. Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) delivered a -24.25% and it closed at $24.37 per share on March 11, 2022.

Here is what Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Fund has to say about Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Warby Parker is a New York-based directto-consumer eyewear retailer with a unique, vertically integrated business model that significantly reduces cost and customer friction. In an industry that has historically relied on price increases ahead of inflation to supplement volume growth, many incumbents have been left with bloated cost structures and channel conflicts that interfere with digitizing their businesses. Warby Parker was launched to take advantage of this opportunity and has been rewarded with rapid growth since its founding in 2010, while still being in the very early stages of penetrating the multi-billiondollar prescription eyewear market. We expect the company to build intrinsic value, with robust growth for the foreseeable future as it continues to gain market share.”

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Our calculations show that Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) was in 15 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 12 funds in the previous quarter. Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) delivered a -47.70% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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