ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The majority of growth indexes entered correction territory during the quarter, due to pressure from the chaotic tariff implementation, concerns about a weakening U.S. economy, and increased inflation. Against this backdrop, the strategy outperformed the benchmark, driven by diversified stock selection and an underweight exposure to the Magnificent Seven. The S&P 500 Index declined 4.27% in the quarter and the benchmark Russell 1000 Growth Index (RLG) fell 9.97%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first quarter 2025 investor letter, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX). Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) is a global coffee brand that roasts, markets, and sells coffee. The one-month return of Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) was -19.66%, and its shares lost 8.18% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 7, 2025, Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) stock closed at $80.00 per share with a market capitalization of $90.874 billion.
ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Drilling further down, we have been engaging with management teams of portfolio companies with production outside the U.S. to understand supply change fungibility and the ability to pass through costs to end customers. We are specifically monitoring risks to the consumer sector from tariffs because consumers have already borne the burden of several years of cost inflation pressuring wallets and some areas of spending, like dining outside the home, have easy substitutes. That said, beverage holdings Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Monster both held up well during the quarter. Starbucks is undergoing an earnings reset under new CEO Brian Nicoll that is being well received by investors. Monster, meanwhile, benefited from price increases and strength in its international business.”
A barista pouring freshly brewed coffee from an espresso machine to a cup in a bustling cafe.
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 84 hedge fund portfolios held Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 76 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
We covered Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) in another article, where we shared the list of best coffee stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 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.