Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released the “Strategic Growth Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The U.S. stock market had another successful time in the third quarter of 2024, with the S&P 500® Index growing for the fourth consecutive quarter, which hasn’t happened since Q4 2021. This year’s first three quarters have seen the best performance for the S&P 500® Index since 1997. However, it was still slightly below the remarkable start of 2023. In the third quarter, the strategy returned +5.49% net-of-fees compared to +3.19% and +5.89% returns for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and the S&P 500 Index. With interest rates that are not exceptionally high by historical standards, the market seems to be starting an easing cycle, which could encourage additional increases. Kindly check the top 5 stocks of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
Mar Vista Strategic Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is an American multinational company that designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories. The one-month return of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was 7.22%, and its shares gained 23.87% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 2, 2024, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock closed at $239.59 per share with a market capitalization of $3.622 trillion.
Mar Vista Strategic Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock was strong in the quarter as investors viewed the company’s generative AI roadmap and iPhone 16 product cycle positively. The market was reminded of the strength of the Apple ecosystem as management demonstrated how generative AI solutions would be integrated into its iOS 18 operating system, which was broadly released in the iPhone 16 late in calendar Q3. We believe Apple’s generative AI-enabled products should spur a meaningful iPhone upgrade cycle and create new avenues of monetization through its app store and advertising offerings. We believe this will support intrinsic value growth that will range between high single digits and low double-digits over our investment horizon.”
A busy sidewalk filled with people using Apple devices like iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in 9th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 158 hedge fund portfolios held Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of the third quarter which was 184 in the previous quarter. In the September quarter Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) delivered $94.9 billion in revenues, up 6% from a year ago. While we acknowledge the potential of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) 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 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and shared the list of Wells Fargo’s top technology stocks that can beat the flagship S&P index over the next 12 months. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 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.