ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. A partial change in leadership in the second half of 2024 may continue into 2025 as a number of macro factors stabilize and small-cap earnings growth is expected to surpass that of its up-market counterparts. In the fourth quarter, the strategy performed in line with the benchmark, the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The strength in industrials and health care was offset by weakness in IT and consumer discretionary sectors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) offers engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); fabrication and modularization; operation and maintenance; asset integrity; and project management services. The one-month return of Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) was -11.01%, and its shares gained 31.17% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 8, 2025, Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) stock closed at $49.32 per share with a market capitalization of $8.459 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
2024 proved a particularly active year for new idea generation: we added 23 new investments while exiting 29 due to a variety of considerations, including acquisitions, market capitalization constraints, and our assessment of forward return potential. While many of the new investments we made during the year are of relatively modest size, we will continue to build these positions over time provided company execution and end market prospects remain intact. In the fourth quarter we initiated five new investments: Oscar Health, TG Therapeutics, Clearwater Analytics, Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) and Modine.
Fluor is one of the largest engineering, procurement and construction firms, with global scale supporting megaprojects across various end markets. With an improved contract structure mix and balance sheet, the company is poised to benefit from an array of high-priority investment projects in markets such as data centers, GLP-1 manufacturing, mining and nuclear energy.
A close-up of an engineer surveying a large-scale construction project.
Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 39 hedge fund portfolios held Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) at the end of the third quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. In the third quarter, Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) reported $4.1 billion in revenues. While we acknowledge the potential of Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) 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 Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) and shared the list of stocks to watch from Jim Cramer’s latest game plan. 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.