Aristotle Atlantic Partners, LLC, an investment advisor, released its “Focus Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The U.S. equity market finished the year strongly, with the S&P 500 Index rising 2.41% in Q4. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, on the other hand, fell 3.06% during the quarter. Aristotle Atlantic’s Focus Growth strategy returned 5.05% gross of fees (5.03% net of fees) in the quarter underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 7.07% total return. A combination of allocation effects and security selection drove the underperformance of the portfolio in the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Aristotle Atlantic Focus Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The one-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 4.80%, and its shares gained 14.95% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 3, 2024, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stock closed at $810.43 per share with a market capitalization of $728.833 billion.
Aristotle Atlantic Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) contributed to performance in the fourth quarter. While shares underperformed, our underweight position versus the benchmark resulted in a positive contribution to relative returns. Lilly shares were weak following an uncharacteristic third quarter earnings miss driven by softer-than-expected sales of its blockbuster diabetes and obesity drugs. The company blamed this partly on wholesaler destocking. Lilly reinforced its view that end demand for the drugs remains strong.
Eli Lilly is a leading pharmaceutical company that develops diabetes, oncology, immunology and neuroscience medicines. The company generates over half of its revenue in the U.S. from its leading drugs Trulicity, Verzenio and Taltz. The company operates in a single business segment: human pharmaceutical products.
Eli Lilly has a deep pipeline in treatment areas focused on metabolic disorders, oncology, immunology and central nervous system disorders. Currently, there are two phase-three assets: orforglipron, an oral GLP-1, and retatrutide, a triple incretin agonist, which could possibly expand upon the potential success of Mounjaro. We believe that Mounjaro has the potential to commercialize beyond Type 2 diabetes and obesity, potentially in the areas of heart disease, sleep apnea, fatty liver disease and chronic kidney disease. We believe the premium valuation is supported by this outsized growth profile.”
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is in 21st position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 106 hedge fund portfolios held Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) at the end of the third quarter which was 100 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) 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 Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and shared the list of best cancer stocks to buy according to hedge funds. 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.