Longleaf Partners, managed by Southeastern Asset Management, released its “Partners Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned -5.14% in the first quarter, compared to the S&P 500’s -4.27% return and Russell 1000 Value’s 2.14% return. The firm’s stock price performance was volatile, but its confidence in future returns grew as the quarter progressed. The firm invested in quality companies that it thinks are strong and resilient to difficult circumstances. The portfolio has significantly outperformed the index, demonstrating this resiliency since the market peak on February 19th. The rise of its underlying value per share outpaced the performance of the stock price during the quarter. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2025, please check its top five holdings.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Longleaf Partners Fund highlighted stocks such as IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC). IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) is a media and internet company. The one-month return of IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) was -17.43%, and its shares lost 15.78% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 17, 2025, IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) stock closed at $33.02 per share with a market capitalization of $2.646 billion.
Longleaf Partners Fund stated the following regarding IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) – Digital holding company IAC was another solid contributor for the quarter. In January, the company announced that former CEO Joey Levin would be shifting his focus to become Executive Chairman at IAC portfolio business Angi. Barry Diller is taking on a larger role at IAC while continuing to be its Chairman. Initially, the market reacted cautiously, but as the quarter went on, the potential benefits became clearer, especially in conjunction with the recently completed spin-off of Angi. During the quarter, we published our first Research Perspectives note that provides more details on our investment case for IAC.”
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IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 54 hedge fund portfolios held IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 50 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of IAC Inc. (NASDAQ:IAC) 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.
