Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Value Equity Strategy” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund returned 10.57% gross of fees, underperforming the Russell 1000 Value Index, which returned 12.42%. The underperformance of the fund relative to the benchmark in the quarter was attributed to the stock selection while the sector allocation had a positive impact. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.
Aristotle Value Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a healthcare company that operates through Pharmaceutical and Animal Health segments. On March 24, 2023, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock closed at $104.80 per share. One-month return of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) was -4.63%, and its shares gained 28.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has a market capitalization of $266.044 billion.
Aristotle Value Equity Strategy made the following comment about Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“Founded in 1891 and headquartered in New Jersey, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is one the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms. The company’s drugs are used to treat conditions in a variety of areas, including oncology (~38% of revenue), vaccines (~19%), diabetes (~11%), animal health (~11%) and other (~21%). Merck produced over $48 billion in sales in 2021, just under half of which were generated in the United States. Within oncology, the firm’s immuno-oncology platform is becoming a major contributor to overall sales, driven by the blockbuster1 drug Keytruda. The company’s vaccine business is also significant and includes Gardasil for the prevention of HPV (the disease that can lead to cervical cancer in women), as well as vaccines for hepatitis B, pediatric diseases and shingles. In recent years, Merck has been shifting its focus toward unmet medical needs in specialty-care areas. As part of this shift in focus, in June 2021, Merck received $9 billion from the spinoff of its women’s health, established brands, and biosimilars businesses into the now independent, publicly traded company Organon…” (Click here to read the full text)
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Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 77 hedge fund portfolios held Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 82 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in another article and shared the list of best stocks for dividends. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 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.
