Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Fund” third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Due to the economy’s resilience and forecasters’ expectations of a soft landing, all major U.S. indices saw gains in the third quarter. The Federal Reserve turned its attention to the state of the labor market as interest rate reduction was implemented. Against this backdrop, Ariel Fund appreciated +12.08% in Q3 outperforming both the Russell 2500 Value and Russell 2500 indices, which returned +9.63% and +8.75%. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Ariel Fund highlighted stocks like Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) offers reservoir description and enhancement services and products to the energy industry. The one-month return of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) was 3.49%, and its shares lost 21.88% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 14, 2024, Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) stock closed at $19.00 per share with a market capitalization of $891.347 million.
Ariel Fund stated the following regarding Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
Lastly, oil services company, Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) also traded lower over the period. Although earnings results were in-line with Wall Street expectations, the volatile macro environment and softening expectations for U.S. onshore drilling and completion activity weighed on performance. Nonetheless, the company continues to project international growth from projects in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and West Africa and remains laser focused on generating positive free cash flow, reducing debt and improving its return on invested capital.
A drilling rig manned by engineers and oil field workers preparing to explore a new petroleum reservoir.
Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 14 hedge fund portfolios held Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) at the end of the second quarter which was 15 in the previous quarter. The second-quarter revenue of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) was $130.6 million compared to $129.6 million in Q1 2024 and $127.9 million in Q2 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) 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 Core Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:CLB) and shared Ariel Small Cap Value Strategy’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.