Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Opportunistic Value Equity Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Large- and mega-cap stocks posted another quarter of outperformance in Q4, despite a brief broad-based performance across market caps. The Russell 2000® Index of small stocks returned 2.19% in the quarter, lagging the 2.66% gain for the S&P 500. The market remains uncertain on the definitive long-term winners from the proliferation of AI. To navigate economic uncertainty, the strategy adheres to its 10 Principles of Value Investing by focusing on attractively priced, financially sound, and well-managed businesses that can grow intrinsic value. The Strategy returned 0.79% during the quarter, trailing the Russell 3000® Value Index’s 3.78% return. The Strategy remains optimistic about the market’s expansion and opportunities for growth. However, the recent volatility in AI trends highlights the need to evaluate multiple outcomes. Please review the Strategy’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Heartland Opportunistic Value Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI). Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) is a leading specialty property & casualty commercial insurance underwriter. On March 24, 2026, Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) stock closed at $39.21 per share. One-month return of Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) was -7.37%, and its shares gained 1.42% over the past 52 weeks. Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) has a market capitalization of $9.633 billion.
Heartland Opportunistic Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“One profitable company whose shares we’ve held for years, and that demonstrates why a focus on shareholder value creation matters in the long run, is Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI), a specialty property & casualty commercial insurance underwriter.
Old Republic is a classic self-help story. We initiated the position in 2019 and added to it in 2020, as the shares took a hit due to the start of the pandemic. Shortly after, ORI was transformed from an insular insurance underwriter with disparate assets to a well-run company with a management team that uses capital allocation as a lever for value creation. That was after current CEO Craig Smiddy took over the company. Prior management made a bad decision in the early 2000s by entering the mortgage insurance market…” (Click here to read the full text)
