ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Despite strong performance from healthcare holdings, the Strategy lagged its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Value Index, due to headwinds in the materials and industrial sectors. While investors continued to focus on a limited number of AI beneficiaries and bitcoin plays, the rest of the market was hit by the economic slowdown and a higher-for-longer interest rate expectation. This made the second quarter particularly difficult to navigate for small-cap stocks. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy highlighted stocks like Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) operates as an asset-light freight and logistics company. The one-month return of Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) was 11.56%, and its shares lost 43.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 20, 2024, Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) stock closed at $36.64 per share with a market capitalization of $1.024 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy stated the following regarding Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Stock selection in the industrials sector was a significant detractor from performance, as many of our holdings felt the impact of economic deceleration. For example, Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD), an asset-light freight and logistics company, faced pressure from weak end markets, resulting in excess carrier capacity and pricing pressures. Additionally, the company has struggled to unlock synergies from its acquisition of Omni Logistics in the first quarter, further fueling concerns about increased leverage. Given the lack of insight into the company’s general strategic direction under its new CEO, we ultimately decided to sell the position.”
A pick-up and delivery truck speeding down a busy city street.
Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 21 hedge fund portfolios held Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) at the end of the second quarter which was 24 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) 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 Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ:FWRD) and shared the list of biggest trucking companies in the US. 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.