Mairs & Power, an investment advisor, released the “Mairs & Power Growth Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The market enjoyed a favorable environment in the third quarter due to modest economic growth, improving inflation trends, steady profit growth, and decreasing interest rates. The fund continued its positive quarterly returns, with 19.01% year-to-date appreciation, but trailed the 22.08% YTD returns for the S&P 500 Total Return (TR) index. Additionally, the Growth Fund beat its peer group according to the Morningstar Large Blend Category, which is up 18.92% YTD. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Mairs & Power Growth Fund highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was 4.53%, and its shares gained 8.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 22, 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $590.87 per share with a market capitalization of $543.768 billion.
Mairs & Power Growth Fund stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“One great example of this is UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), a long-term holding of the Fund. Founded in 1974 in Minnetonka, Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group has grown to become the largest managed care organization in the United States. UnitedHealth Group is already working on multiple AI use cases that could potentially save the company billions of dollars in efficiencies over the next several years. For instance, the company’s call centers receive more than a million calls per day. AI could potentially divert or resolve customer concerns without human interaction. We fully admit the company is not perfect and has its ups and downs. Earlier this year, the company was caught up in a large data breach from a company it acquired in 2022. Healthcare is also deeply political, and UnitedHealth Group can often find itself in the political crosshairs during an election year. We’ve seen these political risks play out before and believe UnitedHealth Group will again emerge unscathed.”
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 22nd position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 112 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the third quarter which was 114 in the previous quarter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s (NYSE:UNH) Q3 revenues reached $101 billion, marking a 9% year-over-year increase with strong growth at both Optum and UnitedHealthcare segments. While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) 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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of most promising healthcare stocks according to hedge funds. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) boosted Madison Sustainable Equity Fund’s performance in Q3 2024 by surpassing earnings expectations. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.