ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Growth Strategy” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. First quarter of 2025 witnessed sharp equities sell off due to the shift out of mega caps. There was a relative outperformance of mid cap growth stocks over large and small cap growth during the first quarter correction, which indicates the broadening of market, that presents attractive opportunities for high active share managers. In the quarter, the ClearBridge Growth Strategy marginally underperformed its Russell Midcap Growth Index benchmark. 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 Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST). Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The one-month return of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) was -12.21%, and its shares gained 56.67% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 10, 2025, Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stock closed at $109.26 per share with a market capitalization of $37.166 billion.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Volatility also created entry points to motivate our first purchase in the utility sector, Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST), as well as reduce our underweight to the consumer discretionary sector with the addition of CAVA Group. Vistra is the largest competitive power generator in the U.S. with a 41 GW fleet of power plants diversified by geography and fuel sources. Long-term fundamentals of the deregulated power markets remain constructive with Vistra well positioned to benefit from continued tightening in its primary PJM (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland Interconnection) and ERCOT (Texas) markets. Pending regulatory clarity could also pave the way for additional power purchase agreements with hyperscalers and act as a positive catalyst for independent power producer stocks. These agreements, in combination with federal subsidies for nuclear plants, have the potential to improve visibility and lower earnings variability across the industry.”
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Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is in 28th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 120 hedge fund portfolios held Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 97 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) 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 Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in another article, where we shared the list of cheap NYSE stocks to invest in according to hedge funds. 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.