Giverny Capital Asset Management, LLC, an investment management company, recently published its second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The portfolio returned -2.31% in the second quarter compared to a 4.28% return for the S&P 500 Total Return Index. The fund returned 12.31% year to date compared to the 15.29% return for the Index during the same period. The performance was hurt by low exposure to the Magnificent Seven tech stocks. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Giverny Capital Asset Management highlighted stocks like Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) manufactures and distributes engineered materials and optoelectronic components and devices. The one-month return of Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) was -20.96%, and its shares gained 17.48% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 2, 2024, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) stock closed at $58.93 per share with a market capitalization of $8.985 billion.
Giverny Capital Asset Management stated the following regarding Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Because I like the portfolio, we had very few transactions during the quarter. I exited Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) as I came to believe the company has an exceptional collection of assets but a much less impressive management culture. The CEO and CFO of Coherent both left their jobs recently, and perhaps I should have given their replacements time to set a new course. I used the proceeds from the sale to add to Five Below and Kinsale Capital. In the short run, Coherent is up and Five Below is down, so the early returns on this swap are not encouraging.”
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Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) at the end of the first quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. During the fiscal third quarter of 2024, Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) recorded a sequential revenue growth of almost 7% and $0.17, or a sequential non-GAAP EPS increase of nearly 50%. While we acknowledge the potential of Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) 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 Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) and shared Diamond Hill Select Strategy’s views on the company. 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.
