Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Value Equity Fund” first-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. During the first quarter, the U.S. equity market declined, with the S&P 500 Index falling by 4.33%. The fixed-income sector also saw a downturn; the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index fell by 0.05%. In terms of investment styles, the value outperformed growth. Macroeconomic conditions indicated a slowdown in growth while inflationary pressures persisted. Additionally, geopolitical events contributed to heightened volatility during this period. For the first quarter of 2026, the Aristotle Value Equity Fund (Class I-2) recorded a total return of -2.23%, underperforming the Russell 1000 Value Index’s return of 2.10% but outperforming the S&P 500 Index’s return of -4.33%. In this challenging environment, the firm remains focused on what it considers to be more assessable and sustainable: the long-term fundamentals of individual businesses. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Aristotle Value Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a multinational software company that develops and supports software, services, devices, and solutions, holding dominant positions in software, cloud infrastructure, generative AI, and gaming. On May 05, 2026, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock closed at $411.38 per share. One-month return of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was 10.78%, and its shares lost 4.30% over the past 52 weeks. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has a market capitalization of $3.06 trillion.
Aristotle Value Equity Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), the global leader in software and enterprise services, was the biggest detractor for the quarter. The decline was largely driven by a broad-based sell-off across software companies in early 2026 as investors weighed both the potential disruption from artificial intelligence and the near-term impact of elevated investment in AI infrastructure on margins and returns. Despite this, Microsoft delivered strong results, highlighted by continued strength in Azure, which grew 39% year over year, and ongoing demand across its cloud platform, where customer demand continues to exceed available capacity. We are also seeing increasing evidence of real-world adoption as Microsoft connects AI directly to systems of record and enterprise data—such as emails, documents and workflows—thereby embedding its tools more deeply into how organizations operate. While the recent sell-off reflects elevated uncertainty around the future of software, we view these concerns as overstated, particularly given Microsoft’s uniquely integrated ecosystem. With widespread adoption of offerings such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot, and supported by robust FREE cash flow that enables continued investment at scale, we believe Microsoft remains well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing migration of enterprise workloads to the cloud, with AI further enhancing the value of its platform over time.”
