The curated database of hedge funds that publish investor letters. Research by geography, strategy, and schools of thought.
| # | Fund | Strategy | Style | Geography | AUM | Latest Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Polen Global Growth returned 8.4% net in Q2 2026 but lagged the MSCI ACWI's 14.9% advance as the market rally remained narrowly concentrated in AI infrastructure beneficiaries, particularly semiconductors and memory businesses. The Portfolio did not own enough of what the market most aggressively rewarded and owned too much of what it continued to penalize, including Software, Healthcare, and Financials. Top contributors included Tokyo Electron, TSMC, and ASML, while Zoetis was the largest detractor. The managers redeployed capital away from businesses where growth has slowed toward companies with stronger current momentum and visible demand tailwinds. They initiated positions in GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, Howmet Aerospace, Hermès, Keyence, and Rheinmetall while exiting Boston Scientific, Siemens Healthineers, and Zoetis. The managers acknowledge market structure has changed, with price momentum and thematic flows reinforcing one another, causing businesses without obvious thematic associations to remain stuck longer than fundamentals suggest. They are adapting by being more nimble while preserving their core philosophy of owning competitively advantaged businesses. They remain confident in the Portfolio's long-term earnings power but recognize the cost of being overly patient has risen in the current environment.
Polen Capital seeks to own competitively advantaged businesses capable of compounding earnings over time, but is adapting to a market environment where momentum, thematic flows, and index concentration have become increasingly important determinants of short-term performance, requiring greater nimbleness in capital allocation while maintaining fundamental research discipline.
The managers remain confident in the long-term earnings power of the Portfolio but recognize that confidence alone is not a portfolio management strategy. They acknowledge the market has changed, the Index has changed, and the cost of being overly patient has risen. They are adapting by being more aware of opportunity cost and working to be more nimble, while preserving their core philosophy of seeking competitively advantaged businesses capable of compounding earnings over time. They are finding opportunities in both obvious places like portions of the AI infrastructure supply chain and less obvious places like commercial aerospace and power infrastructure, where concentrated industry structures, long-duration backlogs, and supply-demand imbalances may support strong growth for many years.
As of Jul 30, 2026
Dan Davidowitz, CFA, serves as Portfolio Manager with 26 years of investment experience and is a controlling person of Polen Capital Management. Damon Ficklin functions as Head of Team and Portfolio Manager, bringing 24 years of experience and also serves as a controlling person of the firm. Both managers are employee-owners of Polen Capital, ensuring strong alignment with client interests. The team employs a bottom-up, fundamental research process integrated with sustainability factors as part of comprehensive financial risk evaluation. They focus on identifying high-quality growth companies capable of delivering consistent above-average earnings growth through solid franchises, strong balance sheets, experienced management teams, and leading products or services.
Lead Portfolio Manager
Damon Ficklin
Managing Partner
Moderate Conviction Bullish
Market Conviction
The managers demonstrate moderate-high conviction through their willingness to initiate six new positions in a single quarter while exiting three, showing decisiveness in capital allocation. They provide clear, specific theses for each new position with named catalysts and competitive advantages. However, the Portfolio remains diversified with 20 named tickers and the managers explicitly acknowledge they are adapting their approach to be more nimble and aware of opportunity cost, suggesting they are not making concentrated, high-conviction bets but rather selective additions within a diversified framework. The language includes some hedging around distinguishing structural advantage from cyclical scarcity. The conviction is meaningfully above moderate given the specific position-level detail and willingness to act, but below high conviction given the diversified structure and adaptive, cautious tone around market dynamics.
Growth Outlook
Manager acknowledges significant market volatility and disruption fears but frames current conditions as creating buying opportunities. They express confidence in long-term compounding potential despite near-term headwinds.
Risk Appetite
Portfolio is actively positioned with concentrated holdings and new position initiations during volatility. Manager is selectively adding to highest conviction names while maintaining meaningful exposure to growth sectors.
Capital Deployment
The managers initiated six new positions and added to two existing positions while exiting three positions and trimming five others. This represents active rotation rather than net deployment or de-risking. The letter describes redeploying capital from businesses where growth has slowed to businesses with stronger momentum, indicating capital is being moved around rather than net cash being put to work or raised. No cash level changes are mentioned. The activity is selective and balanced between adds and trims, suggesting net neutral to mildly positive deployment. The score reflects rotation with a slight bias toward adding given the six new initiations, but the simultaneous exits and trims prevent this from being scored as meaningful deployment.
Forward Guidance
Manager explicitly states they are excited about buying opportunities and took advantage of volatility to increase exposures. They are actively deploying capital into highest conviction positions.
Language Signal
The letter contains meaningful bullish language around specific opportunities: aerospace demand has improved materially, power infrastructure has a long runway, defense has changed materially, and they describe several new positions as competitively advantaged with attractive long-term growth prospects. However, this is balanced by significant bearish and cautionary language: the market rally is narrow and momentum-driven, businesses without thematic support remain stuck in the penalty box, software faces disruption concerns, the cost of waiting has increased, and some current strength could prove to be temporary cyclical scarcity. The language is more cautious than bullish overall, with risk and structural concerns receiving substantial attention alongside the positive opportunity set discussion.
Perceived Risk
Manager identifies multiple specific risks including AI disruption fears reaching 'fever pitch,' geopolitical tensions with Middle East conflict, and psychology/sentiment driving performance over fundamentals. Significant discussion of market dislocations and volatility.
Opportunity Density
The managers see selective opportunities in defined areas and initiated six new positions during the quarter, demonstrating they are finding attractive ideas. They describe opportunities in aerospace, power infrastructure, defense, luxury, and industrial automation with specific catalysts and competitive advantages. However, they also emphasize the need for selectivity and note that many businesses without near-term momentum remain stuck in the penalty box. They exited three positions and trimmed five others, suggesting the opportunity set is not uniformly attractive. The tone is one of finding good ideas in specific pockets rather than seeing broad-based opportunities across markets. This places opportunity density in the selective opportunities range rather than rich or sparse.
Time Horizon
The managers emphasize long-term earnings power and describe seeking businesses capable of compounding earnings over time, with references to long runways for growth and multi-year demand visibility in aerospace, power infrastructure, and defense. They describe GE Aerospace as positioned to deliver durable growth over many years, and Hermès as having a long runway for compounding revenue, earnings, and free cash flow. However, they also explicitly acknowledge the need to be more nimble and aware of opportunity cost, with greater focus on business momentum and timing. They note the cost of being overly patient has risen and they are adapting to a market where businesses without near-term momentum remain stuck longer. This suggests a multi-year thesis with some catalyst dependency and awareness of near-term dynamics, placing the time horizon in the 2-5 year range rather than decade-plus permanent capital.
Key Catalysts
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