Polen Capital is Excited About the Long-Term Growth Potential of Warby Parker (WRBY)

Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund underperformed its benchmark, the Russell 2500 Growth Index, and returned -28.35% net of fees. Poor performance of consumer discretionary and financials sectors impacted the fund’s performance in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

In the second quarter 2022 investor letter, Polen Capital discussed stocks like Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY). Headquartered in New York, New York, Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) is an eyewear products provider. On September 28, 2022, Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) stock closed at $15.35 per share. One-month return of Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) was 22.02% and its shares lost 71.07% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) has a market capitalization of $1.772 billion.

Here is what Polen Capital specifically said about Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) is an omnichannel retailer of prescription glasses, contacts, and sunglasses. The market’s rapid shift toward favoring profitable companies posed challenges for the company in the quarter as did weaker results which were pandemic-related.

Warby Parker is less profitable at this stage of its lifecycle as it invests in building out its retail footprint. We expect the company to be cash-flow positive within a year as it continues to benefit from scale and as retail foot traffic and productivity of the company’s retail stores return to normal as pandemic conditions ease. We may have had the opportunity to add this holding at a more ideal price. However, we remain excited about the long-term growth potential of the business, and the expected IRR.”

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Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 20 hedge fund portfolios held Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY)  at the end of the second quarter which was 18 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE:WRBY) in another article and shared Baron Funds’ views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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