Longleaf Partners, managed by Southeastern Asset Management, released its “Partners Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned -1.33% in the fourth quarter, compared to the S&P 500’s 2.41% return and Russell 1000 Value’s -1.98% return. For the year the fund returned 8.80% compared to 25.02% and 14.37% returns for the indexes. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Longleaf Partners Fund highlighted stocks like PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a technology platform that enables digital payments. The one-month return of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) was 3.33%, and its shares gained 43.75% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 28, 2024, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock closed at $88.19 per share with a market capitalization of $88.414 billion.
Longleaf Partners Fund stated the following regarding PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) – Digital payments platform PayPal was a contributor for the quarter and the year. The company delivered strong results, with gross margin dollars continuing to grow in the mid-high single digits for the last few quarters. Effective cost management further contributed to double-digit FCF growth, a key metric in our analysis. PayPal also demonstrated its commitment to enhancing shareholder value by repurchasing shares at a 10% annualized basis in the most recent quarter, leading to even stronger FCF per share growth. Much of what we envisioned at our initial investment has materialized quicker than anticipated. This strong performance has been driven by the improved leadership of relatively new CEO Alex Chriss.”
A consumer in a cafe paying for goods using a mobile payment app.
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 90 hedge fund portfolios held PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) at the end of the third quarter which was 87 in the previous quarter. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) reported $7.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up 6% on a currency neutral basis. While we acknowledge the potential of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) 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 PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and shared the list of best cash app stocks to buy according to hedge funds. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) contributed to Longleaf Partners Fund’s performance during Q3 2024. 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.