Artko Capital, an investment management company, recently released its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, an average partnership interest in the fund increased by 6.9% net of fees. However, investments in comparable indexes like Russell 2000, Russell Microcap, and the S&P 500 were up 14.0%, 16.1%, and 11.7% in the fourth quarter. For the full year, the fund was up 1.6% net of fees while comparable market indexes were up 16.9%, 9.3%, and 26.3% respectively. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2023, please check its top five holdings.
Artko Capital featured stocks like HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) in the Q4 2023 investor letter. Based in Goose Creek, South Carolina, HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) is a staffing solutions provider in the United States. On March 4, 2024, HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) stock closed at $13.14 per share. One-month return of HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) was -1.65%, and its shares lost 42.75% of their value over the last 52 weeks. HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) has a market capitalization of $182.646 million.
Artko Capital stated the following regarding HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI), the company, had a bit of a mixed bag fundamental year with mostly positive results. HireQuest, the stock, had a flat 2023. However, with an up/down 80.0% round trip, it remains substantially above our original purchase prices. A combination of cyclical labor market fears and challenges in absorbing a large acquisition resulted in a disappointing year for this investment.
The company, which had a great 2022 with revenues up 67.0% for the nine months ended on September 30th, 2022, grew its 2023 first nine-month revenues by 23.0%. More importantly, its Franchise Royalties, which account for most of the profit, increased almost 27.0% for those nine months, though that number is mostly due to the MRI acquisition, with labor market softness offsetting the impressive growth. With the MRI acquisition came a 54.0% increase in SG&A expense, a number that does not include volatile workman’s compensation expense that in the 3rd quarter of 2023 came in at almost $3mm or almost 30.0% of revenues. Overall, 2023 was a kitchen sink year where a combination of a slowing labor market, surprising workman’s compensation expenses, and a slower-than-expected culling of expenses from the MRI acquisition made for some jittery stock performance…” (Click here to read the full text)
An oil worker wearing a hard hat and a safety vest checking an industrial oil pump.
HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) was held by 1 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 1 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed HireQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ:HQI) in another article and shared Liberty Park Capital’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.
