Oakmark Funds, advised by Harris Associates, released its “Oakmark Select Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund returned 14.61% in the fourth quarter compared to an 11.69 % return for the S&P 500 Index. For the calendar year, the fund returned 43.00% compared to 26.29% for the benchmark. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Oakmark Select Fund featured stocks such as American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). Headquartered in New York, New York, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) provides charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services. On January 8, 2024, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) stock closed at $189.21 per share. One-month return of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was 10.62%, and its shares gained 24.48% of their value over the last 52 weeks. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) has a market capitalization of $137.886 billion.
In its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter, Oakmark Select Fund stated the following regarding American Express Company (NYSE:AXP):
“American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is one of the largest credit card issuers and payment networks in the world. We believe the company’s closed-loop network, brand equity and scale represent durable competitive advantages. Unlike most card issuers that process credit card transactions over third-party networks, American Express processes transactions over its own network. This allows American Express to earn greater economics than peers on each card transaction. The company retains part of this advantage in the form of higher profitability and reinvests the rest in enhanced customer rewards and service. Over time, these investments have helped American Express build its brand and attract more lucrative, high-spending card customers. We expect this business model and customer-centric approach will continue to drive industry-leading growth for years to come. Concerns over the near-term economic outlook allowed us to purchase shares of American Express at a 13x P/E on next year’s consensus earnings estimate. We think that is an attractive valuation for a company with this combination of business quality and growth.”
A close-up view of a payment terminal, capturing the sophistication of a payment network.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 74 hedge fund portfolios held American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) at the end of third quarter which was 73 in the previous quarter.
We discussed American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) in another article and shared the list of Dow stocks that will boost their dividends soon. 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.