Here’s Why Polen Global Growth Strategy Exited The Estée Lauder Companies (EL)
Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Global Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund increased 11.66% gross and 11.36% net, respectively, compared to an 11.03% increase for the MSCI ACW Index. For the full year, the fund returned 32.38% and 30.92%, gross and net of fees, respectively compared to 22.20% for the index. The Portfolio has, net of fees, outperformed by 33bps during the quarter and by 872bps for the full year. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Polen Global Growth Strategy featured stocks like The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) is a skincare, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products manufacturer. On February 23, 2024, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) stock closed at $149.99 per share. One-month return of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) was 10.69%, and its shares lost 38.06% of their value over the last 52 weeks. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) has a market capitalization of $53.767 billion.
Polen Global Growth Strategy stated the following regarding The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
"We exited our position in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL), the global leader in luxury cosmetics. The company has faced a series of challenges in the past year, which have significantly impacted the company's profitability. These range from a COVID lockdown in Shanghai, where their only Chinese distribution center was located; to travel retail partners placing large orders expecting a rebound in China that hasn't materialized; to headwinds in North American makeup from brick-and-mortar closures; to being caught off guard by derma cosmetics, an area where L’Oréal is thriving. While some of these headwinds will abate, we do not expect a swift rebound, and the most recent earnings call illustrates that things are not turning around as we expected. We held a very small position in Estée Lauder – under 1%. Without the conviction to add after the recent decline and given little to no evidence that the company will be improving soon, we have better places to put our capital to work."
A photograph of a customer testing out different products in the skincare aisle at a store.
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) was held by 43 hedge fund portfolios, down from 45 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL) in another article and shared the list of most valuable luxury companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.
