Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s net return was -6.3% compared to the Standard & Poor’s -4.3%, the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s -10.0% and the Russell 1000 Value Index’s 2.1% return for the same period. In addition, you can check the fund’s best 5 holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Wedgewood Partners highlighted stocks such as O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY). O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) is a retailer and supplier of automotive aftermarket parts, tools, supplies, equipment, and accessories. The one-month return of O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) was 1.81%, and its shares gained 24.62% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 16, 2025, O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) stock closed at $1,364.36 per share with a market capitalization of $78.097 billion.
Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) also contributed to portfolio performance during the quarter. The Company’s same-store sales grew in the mid-single digits but managed to outstrip most large publicly traded peers, driven by +7% growth in sales to professional customers. More recently, a large public competitor to O’Reilly announced that it was exiting several key markets on the West Coast. We estimate O’Reilly has substantial overlap in these markets and should be able to take advantage of this competitive vacancy. In addition, the Company continues to exhibit exceptional returns on invested capital and more recently traded at relatively attractive valuations, which spurred our decision to add to our position during the quarter.”
A mechanic working on a car in an auto shop, skillfully replacing the aftermarket parts.
O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 63 hedge fund portfolios held O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 41 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) 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.
