Aristotle Atlantic Partners, LLC, an investment advisor, released its “Core Equity Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the U.S. equity market reached a record high. Aristotle Atlantic’s Core Equity strategy returned 5.61% gross of fees (5.51% net of fees) in the quarter outperforming the S&P 500 Index’s 4.28% total return. The relative outperformance was due to security selection. Security selection in Information Technology and Health Care contributed the most to relative performance while Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary detracted. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Aristotle Atlantic Core Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) engages in the discovery, development, manufacturing, and sale of healthcare products. On July 23, 2024, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) stock closed at $103.92 per share. One-month return of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) was -0.92%, and its shares lost 8.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has a market capitalization of $180.782 billion.
Aristotle Atlantic Core Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We sold Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) given the full valuation and the complexity of its combined businesses. While we like the company’s continuous glucose monitoring business FreeStyle Libre and its aggregate medical device business, we are less excited about the prospects for its nutritional business and established pharmaceuticals business. Recent news of a large jury award at an infant formula competitor has us concerned that the overhang of this litigation could be an ongoing negative for Abbott for some time.”
An operating room with a doctor monitoring a patient’s vital signs during surgery with a medical device.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) was held by 62 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter, compared to 64 in the previous quarter, according to our database. During the second quarter, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) recorded an organic sales growth of 7.4% and achieved adjusted earnings per share of $1.14, exceeding analyst estimates. While we acknowledge the potential of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) 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 Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and shared the list of best dividend aristocrat stocks to buy and hold. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
