Upslope Capital Management Sold Charles River (CRL) Due to Thesis Break

Upslope Capital Management, an investment management firm, released its first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The First quarter was challenging for the fund. However, the world has transformed in the two weeks since March 31, due to a drastic realignment of international trade rules. As a result, markets are now more in line with Upslope's strategy and portfolio. The fund returned -5.1% (net) in Q1 compared to -6.1% and +0.2% for the S&P Midcap 400 ETF (MDY) and HFRX Equity Hedge Index, respectively. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Upslope Capital Management highlighted stocks such as Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL). Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) offers drug discovery, non-clinical development, and safety testing services that operate through Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Solutions (Manufacturing) segments.  The one-month return of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) was 36.37%, and its shares lost 57.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 21, 2025, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) stock closed at $102.67 per share with a market capitalization of $5.04 billion.

Upslope Capital Management stated the following regarding Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) (CRL, testing, discovery, and safety for biopharma) – sold due to a thesis break when the FDA announced the phase-out of animal testing requirements for certain drugs. This was a risk I’d worried about, and given an already-challenging environment for the company I decided the thesis (cyclical bottom) had been broken."

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 45 hedge fund portfolios held Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 40 in the third quarter. in the fourth quarter of 2024, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) reported revenue of $1 billion, which is a 1.8% decline on an organic basis compared to the previous year. While we acknowledge the potential of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) 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.

In another article, we covered Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE:CRL) and shared the list of best diagnostics 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.