Cullen Capital Management, LLC, operating under the name Schafer Cullen Capital Management, Inc. (SCCM), has released its “SCCM Enhanced Equity Income Fund” first-quarter investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The first quarter showed mixed results for US stocks, with the S&P 500 declining 4.3% and the Russell 1000 Value rising by 2.1%. The composite outperformed both of its benchmarks in the first quarter, and returned 5.8% (net) compared to a -3.1% return by the CBOE Buy/Write Index (BXM) and a 0.8% return by the SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK). The gains were driven by strong outperformance in seven sectors, mainly in Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Communication Services, during a reversal of the stratified equity market gains of the past two years. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, SCCM Enhanced Equity Income Fund highlighted stocks such as The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC). The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) is a diversified financial services company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The one-month return of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) was 9.19%, and its shares gained 21.20% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 1, 2025, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) stock closed at $192.52 per share, with a market capitalization of $76.155 billion.
SCCM Enhanced Equity Income Fund stated the following regarding The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“A position in The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) was established during the quarter. PNC Financial is a large regional bank with $560 billion in assets and 2,200 branches across the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Southeast with retail and corporate banking operations as well as asset management services. In 2022, PNC acquired the US subsidiary of Spanish financial group BBVA, increasing PNC’s size by roughly 25%. The bank has also been successful at organically expanding its customer base, both in commercial banking and in retail. Its expanding client base has led to solid loan, deposit, and fee income growth. Shares of PNC were purchased at 13.1x earnings with a 3.4% dividend yield.”
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The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 69 hedge fund portfolios held The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) at the end of the first quarter, which was 67 in the previous quarter. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) reported total revenue of $5.5 billion in the first quarter 2025, down $115 million or 2% from Q4 2024, mainly due to seasonal factors. While we acknowledge the potential of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) 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 undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.
