River Road Asset Management, an investment management company released its “River Road Mid Cap Value Fund” Q4 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, AMG River Road Small Cap Value Fund (Class N) returned 2.97% compared to -1.75% returns for the Russell MidCap Value Index. For the year 2024, the fund returned 13.56%, compared to Index return of 13.07%. Stocks rallied in November after a Republican victory but declined sharply following hawkish Fed comments. Shorter duration stocks, including small caps and value, lost most of their post-election gains by the end of December. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, River Road Mid Cap Value Fund emphasized stocks such as Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE). Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) is an online travel company with a market capitalization of $21.609 billion. The one-month return of Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) was -12.19%, and its shares gained 28.45% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 1, 2025, Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) stock closed at $167.70 per share.
River Road Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Another top contributor was Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), the world’s second-largest online travel agency. Between EXPE and its #1 competitor, Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG), the two companies dominate the global online travel agency market. EXPE has used its massive scale to invest in technology and improve the user experience, which has helped the company to maintain or grow market share and benefit from the secular growth in global travel. We appreciate that insiders own 4% of the company and that media legend Barry Diller serves as Chairman, typically operating with overcapitalized balance sheets, which provides financial flexibility.
Expedia’s strong stock performance was driven by several positive factors. The company exceeded revenue expectations with a 3.8% year-over-year growth excluding Trivago, while its B2B segment showed robust growth of 18.4%, demonstrating strong momentum in corporate partnerships. Operating income surged by 26% to $762MM, while net income soared by 61% to $684MM. Most notably, investor confidence was bolstered by strong capital returns through significant share repurchases totaling $1.6B year-to-date (9% of shares outstanding) and improved free cash flow of $2.3B, up 2.8% year-over-year, despite some margin pressure from increased marketing spending. We maintained the position.”
A busy airport terminal with a family eagerly waiting for their business trip.
Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 72 hedge fund portfolios held Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 52 in the third quarter. Expedia Group, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:EXPE) fourth quarter revenue grew 10% to $3.2 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) 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.
We covered Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) in another article, where we shared the list of most undervalued NASDAQ stocks to buy according to hedge funds. Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) contributed to Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund’s performance during Q4 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.