Cambiar SMID Fund Cites ON Semiconductor Timing Bet and Phreesia Recovery Case After Q1 Shortfall

The letter frames a timing trade tied to rising server power needs, plus a defensive wager on a healthcare software firm that kept full‑year EBITDA guidance.

Overview

The Cambiar SMID Fund published its Q1 2026 investor letter on Thursday, June 4, 2026, reporting investor-class (CAMMX) returns of 2.21% and institutional-class (CAMUX) returns of 2.27% while underperforming the Russell 2500 Value Index.
The fund says ON Semiconductor is a high‑conviction cyclical trade based on a hoped-for semiconductor demand inflection and a datacenter architecture shift that would raise power‑semiconductor content per server rack.
ON has already seen strong recent price gains, with a one‑month jump of about 33% and a 52‑week rise near 170%, a fact the letter uses to illustrate timing risk and potential upside.
Phreesia was the largest detractor in healthcare, yet the fund highlights that management maintained full‑year EBITDA guidance and points to the company’s balance sheet and its network of thousands of provider customers as the basis for recovery upside.
Cambiar blamed the quarter’s weakness on concentrated macro headwinds—heavy capex from the largest tech names, AI fears, private‑credit liquidity strains and geopolitical risk in Iran—and reported modest shifts in hedge‑fund ownership that reflect cautious positioning.