Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s net return was 5.5% compared to the Standard & Poor’s 2.4%, the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 7.1%, and the Russell 1000 Value Index’s -2.0% return for the same period. Year to date, the composite returned 29.1% compared to the 25.0%, 33.4%, and 14.4% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Wedgewood Partners highlighted stocks like Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) offers products and technologies for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring. The one-month return of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) was -4.94%, and its shares lost 5.59% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 15, 2025, Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) stock closed at $70.28 per share with a market capitalization of $41.451 billion.
Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) was a contributor to quarterly performance but only slightly impacted annual portfolio performance. As we noted earlier this year, the Company’s flagship transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) franchise slowed as compared to the Company’s recent history. While the TAVR market is maturing, it is still far from saturated, as recent clinical trial results demonstrated. Many aortic stenosis patients prior to seeking TAVR treatment exhibit adverse symptoms, often prompting them to get the help of a doctor in the 7irst place. However, there is a large population af7licted with aortic stenosis that do not exhibit symptoms which is monitored rather than treated with TAVR. Edwards presented data from its EARLY TAVR trial that showed 45 percent of untreated asymptomatic aortic stenosis exhibited no symptoms, still ended up dying, suffered a stroke, or were hospitalized for cardiac events compared to only 26 percent that had been treated with TAVR. The standard of care for a disease such as cancer is immediate intervention rather than waiting for symptoms to worsen. The EARLY trial could help position aortic stenosis treatment on a similar clinical footing as cancer treatment. Although this is just one study, it adds to the substantial body of knowledge that Edwards has created through its R&D investments, emphasizing how important their treatments are for patients. Edwards is well positioned for double-digit earnings growth over the next several years as they expand its structural heart franchise into new populations and indications.”
A cutting edge medical device in a sterile surgical setting, being operated by a skilled surgeon.
Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) at the end of the third quarter which was 47 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) 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 Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) and shared the list of cheap healthcare stocks to buy heading into 2025. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) detracted from Wedgewood Partners’ performance in the previous quarter due to decelerating TAVR growth. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.