Fiduciary Management Inc. (FMI), an independent money management firm, released its second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, global stock markets were mixed, while U.S. large-cap growth stocks continued to march to their beat. The U.S. small-cap stocks were slipping, and international stocks were staying afloat. Economic growth in the U.S. has been resilient, while Europe and Japan have been lackluster. Against this backdrop, the Small Cap Strategy fell about 3.8% (gross) / 4.0% (net), in the quarter compared to a 3.28% and 3.64% decline for the Russell 2000 Index and Russell 2000 Value Index. FMI Large Cap Strategy decreased almost 0.2% (gross) / 0.3% (net) compared with a 4.28% gain and a 2.20% Decline for the S&P 500 and iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF, respectively. The FMI All Cap Equity dropped approximately 0.4% (gross) / 0.6% (net), compared with a 3.12% gain for the iShares Russell 3000 ETF. Finally, the FMI International Strategies declined about 1.4% (gross) / 1.6% (net) on a currency-hedged basis and 2.2% (gross) / 2.4% (net) on a currency-unhedged basis. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Fiduciary Management Inc. highlighted stocks like Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Melville, New York, Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) is a healthcare products and services provider to dental practitioners, laboratories, physician practices, and ambulatory surgery centers, government, institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care clinics. The one-month return of Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) was -1.56%, and its shares lost 18.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 12, 2024, Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) stock closed at $65.13 per share with a market capitalization of $8.34 billion.
Fiduciary Management Inc. stated the following regarding Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) is the largest dental distributor in the world, holding a leading market share position in all of its main geographies, and is also a leader in medical distribution. Henry Schein provides value to both product manufacturers and its customers. Manufacturers benefit from cost effective access to a highly fragmented customer base, as well as sales and marketing support for products. Practitioner customers benefit from timely access to a broad range of products, a reduction in the number of vendors they need to deal with directly, inventory management services, and equipment servicing. Henry Schein also sells practice management software that is used by ~40% of dental practices in the U.S., which is a very sticky business. We expect continued strong long-term growth in spending on dental services, which will be driven by an aging population, along with a focus on preventive care and demand for cosmetic dentistry procedures. Schein’s stock has been under pressure in the near term because it is still recovering from a cyber-attack that took place late last year, and the macro backdrop continues to be challenged, which has led to muted elective/discretionary sales across the business. The stock is trading well below the market, which we view as attractive given its above-average business quality.”
A close-up of a patient’s mouth, the dental products from the company in view.
Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 25 hedge fund portfolios held Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) at the end of the first quarter which was 28 in the previous quarter. Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) reported $3.2 billion in global sales in the first quarter, representing a 3.7% increase. While we acknowledge the potential of Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) 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 addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.