ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Value Strategy” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the strategy underperformed its Russell 1000 Value benchmark, driven by detractors in the energy and financials, which overcame contributions from overweight to energy and underweight to IT. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first quarter 2025 investor letter, ClearBridge Value Strategy emphasized stocks such as  Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is a biopharmaceutical company.  The one-month return of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) was -9.47%, and its shares gained 51.48% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 8, 2025, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) stock closed at $103.19 per share with a market capitalization of $128.64 billion.

ClearBridge Value Strategy stated the following regarding Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Health care stocks populated our top performers for the quarter. Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) announced strong fourth-quarter earnings growth and also rose both on news that its HIV prevention treatment drug Lenacapavir had been filed for U.S. approval, with an anticipated launch scheduled for mid-2025, and on positive reception to its cirrhosis of the liver treatment Livdelzi in its first full quarter."

A physician and a patient having a discussion in a hospital about biopharmaceutical medicines.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 74 hedge fund portfolios held Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 59 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) 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.

We covered Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) in another article, where we shared the list of most undervalued biotech stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 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.