Third Avenue Management, a New York City-based investment firm, published its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for the “Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund. " A copy of the letter is available for download here. In the quarter, the Fund returned 4.62%, outperforming the MSCI USA Small-Cap Value Index (the “Index”), which gained 3.13%. For the year 2025, the Fund delivered a 14.04% return, surpassing the 10.80% return of the index. The Fund primarily invests in publicly traded companies with boards of directors, sometimes controlled by individuals or families, and management teams that operate independently from the Fund. Reviewing 2025, the firm is pleased with the Fund's performance, operational success, and shareholder value creation, and is optimistic about 2026. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks such as UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF). UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) is a bank holding company that provides banking services and asset servicing. On March 09, 2026, UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) stock closed at $113.96 per share. One-month return of UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) was -14.56%, and its shares gained 15.85% over the past 52 weeks. UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) has a market capitalization of $8.676 billion.
Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
"UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) has also been a model of the owner-operator mentality. Many of the traits described above relating to how a good owner-operator company finances itself and guides capital reinvestment decisions can be seen in UMB Financial, which has established a long record of excellent financial stewardship."
UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 20 hedge fund portfolios held UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 23 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) 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 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.