Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund delivered -8.55% gross and -8.67% net of fees compared to a -2.92% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index and a -1.41% return for the S&P SmallCap 600 Growth Index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) is an industrial motion, power, control, and automation technology solutions distributor. The one-month return of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) was 14.03%, and its shares gained 50.75% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 31, 2024, Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) stock closed at $218.19 per share with a market capitalization of $8.423 billion.
Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) is a leading industrial distributor of parts and services across a diversified set of end markets including manufacturing, food and beverage, oil and gas, life sciences, chemicals, cement, and transportation. AIT operates over 500 service centers across the U.S., providing value-added engineering and technical expertise in five product areas: Power Transmission, Bearings, Fluid Power, Flow Control, Advanced Automation, and General Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (“MRO”). The company has leveraged its scale and deep customer relationships to gain market share and expand into adjacent product areas. In our view, the company’s robust operational and capital allocation track record combined with secular trends such as reshoring, infrastructure spending, and automation makes for a compelling addition to the Portfolio.”
A worker in safety gear inspecting a bearing in an industrial motion factory.
Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) at the end of the first quarter which was 24 in the previous quarter. Consolidated sales of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) increased 1.3% in the quarter compared to prior year quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) 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.
