Here's What Supports J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM)

Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Fund” first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter of 2025, the majority of the main U.S. indices saw a decline. Even though Wall Street is tense and markets are still volatile, the firm is taking advantage of the turbulence by carefully purchasing the undervalued stock of quality companies whose value should be realized over the long term. Against this backdrop, Ariel Fund returned -8.00% in the quarter, lagging both the Russell 2500 Value and Russell 2000 Value indices, which returned -5.83% and -7.74%. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2025, please check its top five holdings.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Ariel Fund highlighted stocks such as The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM). The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products. The one-month return of The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) was 2.84%, and its shares lost 0.69% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 22, 2025, The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) stock closed at $117.73 per share with a market capitalization of $12.528 billion.

Ariel Fund stated the following regarding The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Additionally, leading manufacturer of consumer food products, The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) traded higher over the period. While sales came in below expectations, a significant bottom-line beat and subsequent raise to its FY25 EPS outlook boosted shares. While Hostess remains under pressure, management reiterated its long-term sales target, with near term focus on stabilizing revenue. The company is implementing a five-pillar plan to improve the brand with marketing investments. Looking ahead, we believe SJM’s portfolio of iconic and emerging foods brands, coupled with its broad-based innovation and productivity agenda, supports an attractive total shareholder return opportunity."

The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Our database shows that 37 hedge fund portfolios held The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 30 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) 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 The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) and shared the list of best pet stocks to buy according to billionaires. 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.