Mairs & Power, an investment advisor, released the “Mairs & Power Balanced Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The stock market reached a record high in February. However, tariff uncertainty in March led to a fall in equities, while fixed income benefited from perceived safety. The fund ended the quarter up 0.04%. The fund outperformed the benchmark composite indexes (60% S&P 500 Total Return Index and 40% Bloomberg U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index), down 1.48%, and the Morningstar Moderate Allocation peer group, which fell 0.34%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Mairs & Power Balanced Fund highlighted stocks such as QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM). QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) develops and commercializes foundational technologies for the wireless industry. The one-month return of QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) was -2.57%, and its shares lost 22.51% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 6, 2025, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) stock closed at $139.90 per share with a market capitalization of $153.61 billion.
Mairs & Power Balanced Fund stated the following regarding QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“The Information Technology sector underweight had the largest relative impact on returns during the quarter. Only one of the Fund’s technology holdings posted a positive quarterly return – QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) – making this a somewhat hollow outperformance. Qualcomm is a “value tech” company which has enviable cash flows but we believe has been consistently underappreciated in the market for its technology licensing business, which has frequently been targeted for legal action by some of its major customers. However, we believe it continues to prove its best-in-class technology and, despite companies attempting to circumvent Qualcomm, we continue to see a long-term position in the wireless technology space for the company.”
A technician testing the latest 5G device, demonstrating the company’s commitment to innovation.
QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 79 hedge fund portfolios held QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 74 in the third quarter. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) reported non-GAAP revenues of $10.8 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $2.85 in the fiscal second quarter of 2025, both surpassing the mid-range of guidance. While we acknowledge the potential of QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) 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.
