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Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Focus Growth Strategy” first quarter 20245 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. 2025 started following the best two-year stretch ever for the Russell 1000 Growth Index, with a return of +90% largely driven by the AI infrastructure narrative. The Trump victory and pro-business agenda boosted optimism, leading to a 7% rally. However, the first wave of Trump tariffs disrupted the global order, causing uncertainty to spike to levels comparable to COVID-19. The Russell 1000 Index concentration, which had previously been a tailwind to Index returns, was now weighing down. In the first quarter, the strategy returned -6.07% (gross) and -6.25% (net) compared to -9.97% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and -4.27% for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Polen Focus Growth Strategy highlighted stocks such as Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO). Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) engages in the research and development, manufacture, and distribution of pharmaceutical products. The one-month return of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) was 13.89%, and its shares lost 50.28% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 15, 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) stock closed at $66.15 per share with a market capitalization of $289.249 billion.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
"We exited our position in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) after the company released clinical trial data on its next-generation GLP-1 drug, CagriSema. While the data showed encouraging efficacy and safety in an absolute sense, likely solidifying its potential as a future multi-billion-dollar drug, the drug’s profile appears less differentiated from Eli Lilly’s existing tirzepatide franchise (Mounjaro/ZepBound) than we expected. In our view, the trial data slightly advantages Lilly versus Novo for now (at least until we see Eli Lilly’s next-generation product data), and as such, we exited Novo and added the proceeds to Eli Lilly."
An elderly couple receiving insulin from a pharmacist, representing healthcare company's successful pharmaceutical products.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 64 hedge fund portfolios held Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 61 in the previous quarter. In the March quarter of 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) delivered 18% sales growth and 20% operating profit growth. While we acknowledge the potential of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) 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.