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."Is Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) the Best Stock to Buy According to Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies?

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.

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In another article, we covered Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) and shared the list of best pharma stocks to invest. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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