Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC has released its investor letter for the fourth quarter of 2025. The document details the performance of its U.S. Quality Strategy.
U.S. equities showed strong momentum throughout 2025, recording a second straight year of double-digit gains. The market recovered quickly after a dip into bear territory in April. Leadership remained concentrated among mega-cap and AI-driven companies.
Against this backdrop, the Mar Vista strategy reported a net-of-fees gain of 0.20% for the quarter. This compares to a 2.41% return for the Russell 1000 Index and a 2.65% return for the S&P 500 Index.
Stock selection in communication services, consumer discretionary, and financials sectors helped performance. Selection in information technology, materials, and healthcare sectors hurt performance.
The letter highlighted Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) as a stock in its portfolio. Linde is a leading industrial gas company. Its stock closed at $442.90 per share on January 13, 2026. The one-month return was 4.87%, and the 52-week gain was 3.49%. The company has a market capitalization of $207.68 billion.
Regarding Linde, the letter stated: "While the company remains a high-quality global leader in industrial gases, shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) declined nearly 10% in Q4 due to a persistent industrial gas volume recession, softer guidance and global macroeconomic concerns. From a macro standpoint, the company continues to struggle with negative base volumes in its core industrial segments. Much of this is attributable to economic stagnation in Europe and suppressed demand in China. While price increases helped offset some costs, they were insufficient to mask the 1-3% volume declines evidenced in these key territories."
The letter also noted that markets in 2026 will need to balance strong fundamentals with rising economic uncertainties.