Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Income Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q1, US equities markets surged to new all-time highs, supported by a robust US economy. The fund’s Investor Class APFWX, Advisor Class APDWX, and Institutional Class APHWX returned 4.87%, 4.87%, and 4.98% respectively, in the quarter compared to a 10.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. The portfolio delivered a good total return in Q1 comprised of premium income and substantial capital appreciation, in line with the firm’s total return expectations. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Value Income Fund highlighted stocks like Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) is an outdoor advertising company. Lamar Advertising Company’s (NASDAQ:LAMR) one-month return was -2.38%, and its shares gained 25.09% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 5, 2024, Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) stock closed at $116.85 per share with a market capitalization of $11.926 billion.
Artisan Value Income Fund stated the following regarding Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Our top contributors were nVent Electric, Corebridge Financial and Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR). Lamar Advertising—our largest position—operates outdoor advertising structures such as billboards, digital billboards and transit ads. Results have been relatively steady, with strength in local/regional sales lifting the top line, while margin improvement drove better-than-expected earnings growth. In addition to returning cash to shareholders (the dividend yields 4.7%), management is focused on delevering the balance sheet given limited M&A opportunities. While the company’s growth can ebb and flow, over the long term, the company has experienced average annualized organic growth in the high single digits, supplemented by small tuck-in acquisitions. With a record of consistently generating free cash flow and prudent capital allocation that includes high return of capital to shareholders, this stock fits our process.”
A busy urban street, its billboards showing advertisements for a variety of national and local brands.
Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 24 hedge fund portfolios held Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) at the end of the first quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. Lamar Advertising Company’s (NASDAQ:LAMR) revenues increased 5.3% for the first quarter on an acquisition-adjusted basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) 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 Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) and shared Artisan Partners’ views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
