Our Fund, with a -2.5% return, outperformed both the S&P 500 and the Morningstar U.S. Large Blend category in the third quarter, each by 0.8%. The Fund’s 12.8% return for the first nine months of 2023 slightly lagged the return of the S&P 500 but was 1.2% ahead of the peer group. The Fund’s market price return was 15.5% for 2023 to date.
For our Fund, the Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology sectors were our largest positive contributors during the quarter, followed by Consumer Staples and Energy. Industrials and Utilities detracted from relative performance.
Stock selection in Consumer Discretionary was a key driver of relative gains. Our position in Booking Holdings, which operates booking.com, Priceline, OpenTable, and Kayak, among other brands, was a leading contributor. Shares continued their 2023 rally as second-quarter earnings surged past consensus estimates amid strong bookings growth, and the company forecasted a record summer travel season. Booking launched an AI trip planner that can link the technology directly to booking reservations. Uber Technologies, a holding we added in the second quarter, was also a notable contributor as the ridesharing company reported its first profitable quarter supported by strong top-line growth and lower costs.
In the Technology sector, communications equipment names were key contributors to relative performance, led by our position in data center networking hardware provider Arista Networks. The company’s second-quarter results were stronger than expected, as demand from their AI-focused data center customers remained robust. The semiconductors and semiconductor equipment industry, where our underweight has been a drag on returns in 2023, was a notable contributor during the third quarter, led by our position in Micron Technology. The company beat quarterly earnings estimates amid signs of a recovery from a cyclical downturn. We believe demand and prices for the memory chips produced by Micron will likely continue to recover.
Our Industrials holdings returned -6.8% during the quarter, lagging the Index’s return of -5.2%. Triggered by mixed growth outlooks, cyclical stocks reversed some of their strong performances in the first half of the year. Allegion plc, a leading provider of secure access technology, declined after it lowered its growth expectations for the balance of 2023, and we decided to sell our position. Boeing Company declined on supply chain concerns, but we remain confident in the company’s ability to generate strong free cash flow going forward and expect the stock to recover.
Utilities was the worst performing sector in the S&P 500, declining 9.3% in the quarter as interest rates moved higher. Our Utilities holdings declined 13.6%, largely due to our exposure to renewable energy through our investment in AES Corporation. Concerns about funding new renewable energy projects have raised doubts about AES’s growth expectations. Despite near-term uncertainty, we continue to see renewable energy as a differentiating growth opportunity that supports our long-term outlook for the stock.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the total return on the Fund’s net asset value (NAV) per share (with dividends and capital gains reinvested) was