Conestoga Capital Advisors, an asset management company, released its “SMid Cap Strategy” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The second quarter of 2024 may be regarded as a time of moderation. Economic indicators largely reflected slowing growth and easing inflation. Equity markets are also driven by moderation theme. Large-cap stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, rose 3.9% in the second quarter, however, small-cap stocks lagged again, with the Russell 2000 Index declining -3.3% and the Russell 2000 Growth Index declining -2.9%. The strategy declined -4.82% net-of-fees in the quarter compared to -4.22% return for the Russell 2500 Growth Index. Stock selection effects in the Health Care and Consumer Discretionary sectors were the primary drivers of underperformance and were partially offset by positive contributions in the Technology and Industrials sectors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Conestoga Capital Advisors highlighted stocks like HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) engages in the design, manufacturing, and distribution of aerospace, defense, and electronic related products and services. The one-month return of HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) was 7.93%, and its shares gained 45.66% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 15, 2024, HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) stock closed at $239.39 per share with a market capitalization of $28.747 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A): HEI.A is a commercial and military aircraft aftermarket parts company which designs, manufactures, repairs and distributes jet engine and aircraft component replacement parts. The company has benefitted from solid travel growth, albeit slower than the pandemic recovery, as well as healthy parts and maintenance spending due to the delayed retirement of older aircraft given production issues at Boeing (BA) and Airbus.”
A row of commercial airplanes on a runway, their engines running and ready for takeoff.
HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 52 hedge fund portfolios held HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) at the end of the first quarter which was 46 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) 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 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.
