Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Fund” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Global markets in 2024 exceeded forecasts, primarily due to the overwhelming success of the “magnificent seven,” or mega-cap technology stocks. Despite the concentration of gains, the optimism was fueled by the U.S. election results, solid earnings growth, and a healthy labor market. The fund returned -0.66% in the quarter trailing both the Russell 2500 Value and Russell 2500 Indices, which returned -0.26% and +0.62%, respectively. Ariel Fund increased +11.80%, outpacing the Russell 2500 Value Index’s +10.98% return and just short of the Russell 2500 Index +12.00% gain, over the trailing one-year period. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Ariel Fund highlighted stocks like The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) is an investment firm that focuses on direct and fund of fund investments. The one-month return of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) was 12.79%, and its shares gained 42.30% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 28, 2024, The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) stock closed at $56.95 per share with a market capitalization of $20.37 billion.
Ariel Fund stated the following regarding The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Additionally, alternative asset manager, The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG), traded higher over the quarter with the U.S. election widely viewed as a positive catalyst across the industry. Investors expect the incoming administration to emphasize deregulation and exhibit a greater openness to business combinations compared to the prior regime. Hence, management’s positive commentary around the expectation for increased capital market activity, fee-related earnings growth, private equity fund appreciation as well as returning capital to shareholders via buybacks sent shares higher. At current levels, we believe CG trades at a healthy discount to our private market value estimate.”
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The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) at the end of the third quarter which was 23 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) 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 The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) and shared Vulcan Value Partners’ views on the company. Oakmark Fund established a position in The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) during Q4 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.