Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management company, released its “Mid Cap Strategy” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Q4 witnessed an uneven increase in markets, capping off yet another positive year for the markets. In general, equities rose after the US election, but some gave up most or all of those gains by the end of the year. The portfolio trailed the Russell Midcap Index in Q4 and for the full year. The strategy returned -2.18% (gross) and -2.35% (net) in the quarter compared to 0.62% for the index. For the full year, the strategy returned 11.39% (gross) and 10.61% (net) compared to 15.34% return for the index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Diamond Hill Mid Cap Strategy emphasized stocks such as ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR). Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a clinical research organization. The one-month return of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was -1.53%, and its shares lost 44.51% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 17, 2025, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) stock closed at $185.77 per share with a market capitalization of $15.014 billion.
Diamond Hill Mid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“As valuations have continued rising and the economic cycle has gotten relatively long in the tooth, we’ve thought carefully about where and how we are exposed to more cyclical stocks. As such, we initiated a number of new positions in Q4, including ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR), Informatica, Teledyne Technologies, LPL Financial Holdings, Teleflex Incorporated and Solventum Corporation.
ICON is a leader in clinical trial outsourcing and commercial support and is a key player in the efficient and timely delivery of worldwide drug development for pharmaceutical clients. We believe the outlook over the long-term is favorable and initiated a position during the quarter at a valuation below our estimate of intrinsic value.”
A laboratory setting with a team of scientists working on a clinical trial.
ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 46 hedge fund portfolios held ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 48 in the previous quarter. ICON Public Limited Company’s (NASDAQ:ICLR) fourth quarter revenue was $2.04 billion, represents a year-on-year decrease of 1.2%. While we acknowledge the potential of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) 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 ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) and shared Invesco Small Cap Value Fund’s views on the company. 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.