Ensemble Capital Management, an investment management company, released its first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The strategy returned 3.48% in the first quarter compared to 7.50% for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Ensemble Capital highlighted stocks like First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) is a financial company that operates through Commercial Banking and Wealth Management segments. On April 20, 2023, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock closed at $13.88 per share. One-month return of First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) was 12.30%, and its shares lost 91.16% of their value over the last 52 weeks. First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) has a market capitalization of $2.585 billion.
Ensemble Capital made the following comment about First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“The first quarter of 2023 saw continued strong performance across most of our portfolio, but this strength was offset by the decline in our long time portfolio holding First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC). The bank runs triggered by Silicon Valley Bank’s failure spread to First Republic causing the stock to fall dramatically. We exited our investment in First Republic as it became clear that the scale of the deposit withdrawals was of a magnitude that makes it very unlikely, in our view, that the bank can remain a standalone entity for more than a short period of time absent a raise of capital that would dramatically dilute current shareholders.
We first invested in First Republic Bank in 2012 in 2012. In the wreckage of the financial crisis, the bank was notable in the way it had distinguished itself in having written far fewer bad mortgages compared to the top 50 banks.
As the chart below shows, going back 23 years, including the Dot Com bust that roiled the bank’s home region in the San Francisco Bay Area and the housing bubble bust of 2008-2012, First Republic experienced credit losses of less than 1/10th of the credit losses experienced by the top 50 banks on average over that time period…” (Click here to read the full text)
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First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter.
We discussed First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in another article and shared Wedgewood Partners’ views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
