Ryan Specialty (RYAN) Fell as Pricing Weakness Weighs on Investor Sentiment

Soumya Eswaran

Tue, May 19, 2026 at 9:25 AM EDT 3 min read

Cooper Investors, an investment management firm, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter for “Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund (Unhedged)”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. The portfolio returned -9.2% in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date return to -12.2%. Currency movements negatively impacted returns by about 6%. The risk of AI disruption and the Iran War dominated the market in the quarter. The Fund uses the Capital Pool framework to categorize opportunities. The Real Assets portfolio was the only positive contributor for both the quarter and the year. The Compounding Capital Pool had poor returns, and Reversionary investments were a modest headwind. Review the Fund’s top five holdings for key 2026 insights.

In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund highlighted Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN). Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN) is a specialty insurance services company that provides distribution, underwriting, product development, administration, and risk management services. On May 18, 2026, Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN) closed at $33.67 per share. One-month return of Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN) was -11.97%, and its shares lost 52.30% over the past 52 weeks. Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN) has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion.

Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund stated the following regarding Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:

"Where the debate around Freee is about long-run business model durability, the investment case for Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RYAN), the other significant detractor for the period, has been tested by something more traditional - a turning insurance cycle. The question of AI's impact on wholesale broking is not lost on us, but we believe that the weakening insurance pricing environment has been more impactful on investor sentiment to date.

As described by Founder and Executive Chairman Pat Ryan on the 2025 Q4 earnings call, "What distinguishes this cycle is simple. It was harder for longer on the way up and much faster on the way down, particularly as it relates to property." Pat went on to share that in more than 60 years in the industry he has rarely witnessed market sentiment shift this rapidly. We also failed to recognise how quickly the cycle was turning — or more directly, we failed to at least reduce the size of the investment as the operating environment was clearly softening. Ryan Specialty's competitive position remains strong, and management continue to invest countercyclically in talent and technology. However, given the continuing weakness in end markets, we have materially reduced the size of our investment."