What Makes Duocommun (DCO) a Compelling Opportunity?

Rewey Asset Management, an investment management company, released its “RAM Smid Composite” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The composite declined 6.97% in Q1 2025, trailing a 5.83% decline for the benchmark Russell 2500 Value Total Return Index. Larger-cap stocks outperformed smaller ones in 1Q25, with the Russell 3000 TR value up 1.64% and the Russell 2000 TR value down 7.74%, while the RAM Smid composite is biased towards smaller-cap stocks. The significant market theme in Q1 2025 was the uncertainty surrounding the potential negative economic effects of Trump's tariffs. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Rewey Asset Management highlighted stocks such as Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO). Headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) provides engineering and manufacturing services to the aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical industries. The one-month return of Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) was 16.57%, and its shares gained 13.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 22, 2025, Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) stock closed at $67.26 per share with a market capitalization of $987.879 million.

Rewey Asset Management stated the following regarding Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"We see a compelling investment case in Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO), a military and commercial aerospace supplier that fits one of our strongest current investment themes. We believe the aerospace and defense sector could see revenue growth regardless of a potential tariff impact or economic slowdown. On the defense side, the U.S. needs to rebuild the stockpiles sent to support the Ukraine and Israel, replace equipment left in Afghanistan and re-tool their equipment for 21st century threats like drone and electronic warfare. We believe that procurement should be little impacted by DOGE cuts and note the recently passed continuing budget resolution and the prospective 2026 budget under consideration in the Senate both show a rise in defense expenditures. European NATO members are also increasing their defense procurement budgets. On the commercial side, both Boeing and Airbus have struggled to deliver planes despite very strong demand and backlogs. We think that production rates at both companies should continue to improve off the bottom, driving higher sales and earnings results through their supplier base.

DCO, a 175-year-old company with a $859M market cap, is relatively unknown provider in the military, space, and commercial aircraft industries. In 2024, 54% of its revenue came from military and space, 42% from commercial aerospace, and the rest from industrial. With diverse products like cabling, lighting, and motion control, we see DCO as a good proxy for military and commercial spending. RTX Corp. (Raytheon) is its largest customer, and the top 10 customers comprise 60% of revenues..." (Click here to read the full text)

Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 18 hedge fund portfolios held Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 13 in the third quarter. Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) reported sales of $194.1 million in Q1 2025, representing an increase of 1.7% from Q1 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) 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 undervalued AI stock set for massive gains.

In another article, we covered Ducommun Incorporated (NYSE:DCO) and shared the list of best aerospace and defense stocks to buy according to analysts. 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.