Soumya Eswaran
3 min read
In This Article:
River Road Asset Management, an investment management company, released its “River Road Small Cap Value Fund” Q1 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, AMG River Road Small Cap Value Fund (Class N) returned -3.94% compared to -7.74% returns for the Russell 2000 Value Index. The fund returned 1.30% for the one year ended March 31, 2025, compared to the index return of -3.12%. Stocks declined in the first quarter due to diminishing growth expectations and uncertainty surrounding trade policies, which crumbled the post-election increase in business, consumer, and investor confidence. The remaining gains were subsequently erased following “Liberation Day.” For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2025, please check its top five holdings.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, River Road Small Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks such as Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC). Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) is a medical device company that focuses on the treatment of diabetes. The one-month return of Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) was -5.02%, and its shares lost 20.30% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 25, 2025, Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) stock closed at $9.93 per share, with a market capitalization of $580.334 million.
River Road Small Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
"The holding with the lowest contribution to active return in the portfolio during Q1 was Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC), the world’s #1 global provider of pen needles and syringes for insulin injections with more than eight billion units sold annually. EMBC reported better-than expected F1Q25 results but lowered FY25 revenue guidance due to foreign exchange headwinds following the recent appreciation of the U.S. Dollar."
An assembly line of medical devices being packed for distribution.
Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) at the end of the first quarter, which was 21 in the previous quarter. In the fiscal second quarter of 2025, Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) generated $259 million in revenue, reflecting a 9.8% decline year-over-year on a reported basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Embecta Corp. (NASDAQ:EMBC) 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.
