Third Avenue Management, a New York City-based investment firm, published its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for the “Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund. " A copy of the letter is available for download here. In the quarter, the Fund returned 4.62%, outperforming the MSCI USA Small-Cap Value Index (the “Index”), which gained 3.13%. For the year 2025, the Fund delivered a 14.04% return, surpassing the 10.80% return of the index. The Fund primarily invests in publicly traded companies with boards of directors, sometimes controlled by individuals or families, and management teams that operate independently from the Fund. Reviewing 2025, the firm is pleased with the Fund's performance, operational success, and shareholder value creation, and is optimistic about 2026. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS). Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) is a business services company that provides corporate identity uniforms and related business services. On March 10, 2026, Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) stock closed at $196.28 per share. One-month return of Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) was -2.04%, and its shares gained 2.12% over the past 52 weeks. Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) has a market capitalization of $78.88 billion.

Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Regarding Unifirst’s competitive positioning, the company often competes directly against Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS), a company with revenue four times that of Unifirst and a valuation ten times larger than Unifirst. Cintas’ huge valuation premium derives from far higher profitability, which, in turn, derives from superior scale, efficiency, and route density, areas where Unifirst has continued to leave investors disappointed.

Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 66 hedge fund portfolios held Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 61 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) 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 Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) and shared a list of best performing long term stocks to invest in. 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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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.