Wasatch Global Investors, an investment management firm, published its “Wasatch Core Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter, the benchmark Russell 2000® Index rose 2.14% while the Russell 2000 Growth Index increased 0.01%. Outperforming its benchmark, the Wasatch Core Growth Fund—Investor Class gained 5.72%. For the one-year period ended December 31, 2021, the Fund’s Investor Class returned 21.03%, which compared favorably to the 14.82% gain in the Russell 2000 Index and the 2.83% increase in the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Wasatch Core Growth Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: LPRO) and discussed its stance on the firm. Open Lending Corporation is an Austin, Texas-based automated lending services provider with a $2.4 billion market capitalization. LPRO delivered a -14.32% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -48.17%. The stock closed at $19.26 per share on March 03, 2022.
Here is what Wasatch Core Growth Fund has to say about Open Lending Corporation in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“The greatest detractor from Fund performance for the fourth quarter was Open Lending Corp. (LPRO)—which provides loan analytics, risk-based pricing and automated decision technology for lenders who serve car buyers. Although Open Lending is classified as a financial company, it incurs no credit risk. Instead, Open Lending offers a fee-based platform that enables lenders to assess the creditworthiness of car buyers more accurately. While third-quarter earnings results were strong, management lowered fourth-quarter loan origination guidance due to extremely low inventory levels on dealer lots resulting from supplychain issues and production slowdowns at auto manufacturers. Also, price increases have been especially tough on car buyers with below-prime credit. While these challenges could persist into 2022, we continue to like the fact that Open Lending has a strong business model and continues to grow its partner network, which should be beneficial as inventory levels normalize. We remain excited about Open Lending’s long-run growth opportunity.”
Photo by Viacheslav Bublyk on Unsplash
Our calculations show that Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: LPRO) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. LPRO was in 18 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 28 funds in the previous quarter. Open Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: LPRO) delivered a -14.29% return in the past 3 months.
In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on LPRO 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.
