Baird Equity Asset Management, an investment management company, released its “Baird Mid Cap Growth Equity Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy returned -8.9%, net of fees, in the second quarter, compared to the Russell Midcap Growth’s -3.2% decline. It was a challenging quarter due to portfolio positioning and ongoing benchmark factor headwinds, which negatively impacted the relative performance of the strategy in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baird Mid Cap Growth Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) is a US-based specialty value retailer. The one-month return of Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) was 21.10%, and its shares lost 39.78% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 25, 2024, Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) stock closed at $91.04 per share with a market capitalization of $5.211 billion.
Baird Mid Cap Growth Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Consumer discretionary performance was the quarter’s largest detractor. Thematically, our holdings in retail and in particular value retail hurt due to greater-than-anticipated operating challenges amid the persistent inflationary environment. In addition, our expectation that value-based retailers would benefit from consumers trading down, spurring revenue and new customer growth, has not yet materialized in a meaningful way. Of note, Dollar Tree and Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) delivered disappointing performance.”
A family happily shopping for everyday items in a specialty retail store.
Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) at the end of the second quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter. Five Below, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:FIVE) sales increased by 9.4% year-over-year to $830 million in the second quarter of 2024, while comparable sales were down by 5.7%. While we acknowledge the potential of Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) 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 Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIVE) and shared Wasatch Small Cap Growth Strategy’s views on the company. 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.