Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Value Plus Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund declined 1.79% in the quarter, compared to a 1.06% loss for the Russell 2000 Value Index. Although stock selection was modestly negative for the entire portfolio, the selection effect was most pronounced in the financial sector. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Heartland Value Plus Fund highlighted stocks like FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) is a bank holding company for FirstBank. The one-month return of FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) was -9.43%, and its shares gained 34.55% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 13, 2025, FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) stock closed at $49.58 per share with a market capitalization of $2.31 billion.
Heartland Value Plus Fund stated the following regarding FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Financials. FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) was one our Strategy’s best-performing holdings in the fourth quarter and 2024. Shares of the Nashville company, which provides commercial and consumer banking services in the Southeast through its subsidiary FirstBank, rose more than 29% for the full year on strong deposit and loan growth across its portfolio.
FBK, which operates in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Georgia, and Alabama, is a prime example of what we have been looking for lately in the Financials sector: attractively priced banks operating in attractive regions. In August, the company restructured its securities portfolio, which should boost interest income and net interest income going forward. Insiders continue to buy the stock, suggesting their confidence in the outlook for the company.
What gives us confidence is that despite the strong run, FBK is still trading at just 1.8X tangible book value, which is below its 10-year average. Based on earnings, the stock sports a modest 15X multiple despite its stable net income margin and growing dividend yield.”
A close up of a person’s hand using a mobile banking app.
FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 14 hedge fund portfolios held FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) at the end of the third quarter which was 13 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) 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 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.