ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Strong corporate earnings, enthusiasm over AI, and anticipation of interest rate cuts boosted the equity market rally in the first quarter. The growth stocks outperformed their value counterparts during the quarter as benchmark Russell 2500 Growth Index returning 8.51% versus the 6.07% return of the Russell 2500 Value Index. Against this backdrop, the strategy underperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark in the quarter. Industrials and healthcare sectors were the leading contributors while the real estate and IT sectors detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) offers a security platform for multi-cloud environments. The one-month return of Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) was -6.39%, and its shares lost 12.18% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 21, 2024, Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) stock closed at $ 44.38 per share with a market capitalization of $ 13.196 billion.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Several of our other IT holdings faced idiosyncratic headwinds during the period, resulting in three of our five worst-performing holdings being from the sector. This included security platform operator Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT), whose stock price slid despite beating third-quarter earnings estimates as management guided full-year annual recurring revenue lower due to larger and more complex deals taking longer to close.”
A software engineer coding at a computer, surrounded by a cluttered desk of hardware.
Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 49 hedge fund portfolios held Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) at the end of the first quarter which was 50 in the previous quarter. The revenue of Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) for the recent quarter was $381 million, up 21% and exceeded the high end of guidance by $4 million. While we acknowledge the potential of Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) 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.
We discussed Dynatrace, Inc. (NYSE:DT) in another article and shared the list of top mid-cap tech companies in the US. 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.
