Ariel Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Ariel Fund & Ariel Appreciation Fund” third-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -0.17% was recorded by the Fund for the third quarter of 2021, compared to the Russell 2500TM Value Index, Russell 2500TM Index, and S&P 500® Index which had a -2.07%, -2.68%, and 0.58% returns respectively for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.
Ariel Fund & Ariel Appreciation Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) and discussed its stance on the firm. Nielsen Holdings plc is a New York, New York-based global data and analytics company with a $7.2 billion market capitalization. NLSN delivered a -3.64% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 2.39%. The stock closed at $20.11 per share on December 14, 2021.
Here is what Ariel Fund & Ariel Appreciation Fund has to say about Nielsen Holdings plc in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“There are times when our conviction for a name can be so high that we hold it across all of our domestic equity portfolios. Nielsen Holdings (NLSN), one of this quarter’s poorest performing names, sits in this category. Nielsen shares slumped -22% during the quarter. Although we hate losing money, we believe unrealized upside embedded in our portfolios was boosted as the stock was oversold.
Nielsen is a global leader in tracking television audience viewership. Having held the position since 2017, we were pleased to see its shares rally last year after the company deleveraged its balance sheet by selling its less attractive Connect business (which measures market share for consumer products at retail) for $2.7 billion. Once focused on the more attractive Watch business (which measures viewership ratings across media), we anticipated continued recovery. But in September, the Media Rating Council (MRC) suspended Nielsen’s TV ratings accreditation. MRC alleged the company was undercounting viewership during COVID and Nielsen acknowledges the pandemic reduced its rating panel participant home visits. This setback has been compounded by the fact that broadcasters have long been skeptical of Nielsen’s ability to capture all of the ways people watch broadcast television, particularly on mobile devices…” (Click here to see the full text)
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
Based on our calculations, Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. NLSN was in 24 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 28 funds in the previous quarter. Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) delivered a 0.75% return in the past 3 months.
Earlier this year, we also shared Ariel Investments’ views on NLSN 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.
