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Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Madison Small Cap Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fourth quarter was challenging for the fund and continued to underperform its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index. The fund (Class I) returned -0.4%, lagging the benchmark’s 2.2% return. Sector allocation negatively impacted the Fund’s performance this quarter, with healthcare being the weakest sector. The Fund remains optimistic that the speculative market is losing momentum, but cautious, given the saying “markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Madison Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT). Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) is a technology company that offers a data streaming platform that enables customers to connect their applications, systems, and data layers in the cloud. On March 13, 2026, Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) stock closed at $30.67 per share. One-month return of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)was 0.36%, and its shares gained 12.76% over the past 52 weeks. Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) has a market capitalization of $11.019 billion.
Madison Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“We exited our investment in infrastructure software vendor Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) following the announcement that IBM would acquire the company for $11 billion, or $31 per share, representing a ~35% premium to the previous Friday’s closing price. We do not expect competing bids and decided to sell our position at prices over $30 per share to fund other new opportunities.”
Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 71 hedge fund portfolios held Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 60 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) 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 Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) and shared a list of best up and coming AI stocks to buy. 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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