Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Fund” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Due to investor excitement for stocks with an artificial intelligence (AI) theme, the bull market surged through the second quarter. The S&P 500 edged a small gain despite the loss in Mid- and Small-Cap stocks because of this narrow, momentum-driven rally. The fund decreased -5.64% in the quarter against this backdrop, underperforming the Russell 2500 Value Index’s -4.31% and the Russell 2500 Index’s -4.27% return. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Ariel Fund highlighted stocks like Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) manufactures and markets dental products. The one-month return of Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) was -0.57%, and its shares lost 52.72% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 6, 2024, Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) stock closed at $15.76 per share with a market capitalization of $2.708 billion.
Ariel Fund stated the following regarding Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Lastly, global dental manufacturing company, Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST), declined over the period, as the company navigates changes in senior management, weakening demand in North America, sanctions in Russia and pricing pressures in China. Although shares are likely range-bound for the next couple of quarters, the new CEO seeks to assess the long-term earnings power of the business and address its current challenges. Although we have been deeply disappointed with this investment, after a full reassessment, we concluded NVST has multiple opportunities to outperform over the long-term. In our view, NVST should benefit from its rich research and development pipeline, several new products in high-growth dental segments, facility consolidation and previous IT investments. We believe the downside is priced in and we are now evaluating upside return potential.”
A close-up of a dental bracket and wires being fitted into a patient’s mouth.
Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 33 hedge fund portfolios held Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) at the end of the first quarter which was 33 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) 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 Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) and shared the list of best healthcare stocks to buy under $20. Envista Holdings Corporation (NYSE:NVST) experienced a further decline in the previous quarter. 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.
