Investment management company Vulcan Value Partners recently released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In 2024, the US economy was stronger than expected; the large-cap stocks led the robust U.S. equities markets. Although it is still excessively high, inflation did decrease throughout the course of the year. The largest market cap U.S. Companies performed better than the whole market. Lastly, U.S. stocks outperformed the majority of equities in non-U.S. markets. During Q4 and 2024, Focus and Focus Plus were the best performing strategies while Small Cap was the worst performing. However, all strategies had positive returns for the year. In the quarter, the Large Cap Composite returned -0.1% net of fees and expenses, the Small Cap Composite returned -7.3% net, the Focus Composite returned 6.3% net, the Focus Plus composite returned 7.4% and the All-Cap Composite returned -2.5% net. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Vulcan Value Partners highlighted stocks like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was 1.49%, and its shares gained 32.35% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 16, 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $194.41 per share with a market capitalization of $2.386 trillion.
Vulcan Value Partners stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“There were five material contributors to performance: Amazon.com Inc., Salesforce Inc., Live Nation Entertainment Inc., Carlyle Group Inc., and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Alphabet delivered strong results during the third quarter. In particular, Google Cloud revenue grew 35% during the period and the segment’s margins expanded materially. Disruption risks to core search from generative AI have not completely abated, but Alphabet’s technical prowess and historical investments in leading technologies are becoming more apparent. We continue to monitor the antitrust cases against the company, and we will follow our discipline as we receive more information.”
A user’s hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company’s search capabilities.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in 7th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 160 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the third quarter which was 165 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and shared Alphyn Capital Management’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.