Should You Hold Coupang (CPNG)?

Baron Capital, an investment management company, released its Q4 2025 letter for its “Baron Global Opportunity Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Baron Global Opportunity Fund showcased a strong fourth quarter and an outstanding year. The Fund rose 6.5% (Institutional Shares) in Q4 compared to 3.3% return for the MSCI ACWI Index (the Index) and the 2.8% gain for the MSCI ACWI Growth Index, the Fund’s benchmarks. For 2025, the Fund was up 27.5%, exceeding 22.3% and 22.4% returns for benchmarks, respectively. For the Fund, the year has been defined by the challenges of de-globalization and the support from easing Federal Reserve policies, the beginnings of the AI investment cycle, and its investment in SpaceX. The Fund concluded the year with 42 investments, up from 38 the previous year, with 35 stocks accounting for 99.3% of its net assets. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Global Opportunity Fund highlighted stocks like Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG). Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) is a Korean technology and e-commerce platform that operates through Product Commerce and Developing Offerings segments. On March 04, 2026, Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) stock closed at $19.10 per share. One-month return of Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) was 13.76%, and its shares lost 17.57% over the past 52 weeks. Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) has a market capitalization of $34.89 billion.

Baron Global Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Shares of Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG), Korea's largest e-commerce platform, declined 26.7% in the fourth quarter (though up 7.3% in 2025). The weakness was initially driven by elevated upfront investments in its new market, Taiwan, where aggressive customer acquisition, supplier onboarding and product procurement, and logistics infrastructure buildout weighed on near-term profitability, as the company is expanding into a large new TAM underpinned by positive early data points. Investor sentiment was further pressured by a recent customer data breach incident, which raised short-term concerns around compliance costs, reputational risk, and potential regulatory scrutiny. A softer domestic consumption backdrop in Korea toward year-end also contributed to a more cautious market positioning. These dynamics drove a material multiple contraction, which was responsible for over 100% of the decline in the shares during the quarter. Despite these headwinds, our conviction in Coupang remains intact. We view the data security issue as operational rather than structural, with no evidence of lasting customer attrition or erosion in competitive positioning. Over the longer term, we believe that Coupang will continue to gain market share in its core business while leveraging its differentiated fulfillment infrastructure and technology to scale new services and expand into new markets. We remain invested."

Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 94 hedge fund portfolios held Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 83 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Coupang, Inc. (NYSE:CPNG) and shared a list of best stocks to buy and hold for the next 2 years. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.