Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Small Cap Value Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter of 2024, US indexes continued to exceed expectations. This rally was fueled by excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), robust corporate earnings growth, declining inflation, and expectations for interest rate cuts. In this backdrop, Ariel Small Cap Value Tax-Exempt Composite rose +3.97% gross of fees (+3.71% net of fees) and outperformed the +2.90% return of the Russell 2000 Value Index but fell short of the +5.18% gain of the growthier Russell 2000 Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Ariel Small Cap Value Strategy highlighted stocks like Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) provides business-to-business data and analytics. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.’s (NYSE:DNB) one-month return was -8.35%, and its shares lost 10.08% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 5, 2024, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) stock closed at $9.60 per share with a market capitalization of $4.25 billion.
Ariel Small Cap Value Strategy stated the following regarding Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Finally, shares of leading provider of commercial credit data and analytics, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) also fell in the period on mixed earnings results. New products and consumer demand for DNB’s Master Data Management solution, a precursor to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and third-party risk and supply chain management solutions, drove strong organic revenue growth. However, this outperformance was offset by higher costs related to data acquisition and processing, personnel expenses and reinvestments in generative AI. We are encouraged by the acceleration in organic growth and expect management to focus on operating efficiencies as newer products scale over the near-to-medium term. In our view, DNB is a wide moat business whose strong brand, market-leading share and excellent free cash flow generation create high barriers to entry.”
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Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) at the end of the first quarter which was 25 in the previous quarter. The first quarter revenues of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) were $565 million, an increase of 4.5% compared to the prior year quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) 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 Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNB) and shared the list of best US stocks to invest in under $10. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
