Fred Alger Management, an investment management company, released its “Alger Small Cap Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. U.S. equities rose in the fourth quarter, driven by decisive U.S. presidential election outcome. Class A shares of the fund outperformed the Russell 2000 Growth Index in the quarter. The Information Technology and Health Care sectors positively influenced performance, while Consumer Discretionary and Financials negatively impacted. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Alger Small Cap Growth Fund highlighted stocks like Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a diagnostics company that develops and commercializes molecular testing services. The one-month return of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) was 4.40%, and its shares gained 150.39% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 27, 2024, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) stock closed at $165.26 per share with a market capitalization of $21.818 billion.
Alger Small Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a specialty lab providing genetic testing services in the reproductive health, oncology and transplant markets. Reproductive health tests are run to screen for common genetic disorders such as trisomy 13, 18, and 21 in pregnant women – these tests are also known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). The company’s oncology franchise is led by Signatera, a test used to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) – the applications of this test are primarily to monitor therapy response and detect cancer recurrence. Lastly, Natera’s transplant franchise is led by Prospera, a test used to monitor transplant organ rejection. Natera’s tests are all based on the company’s proprietary liquid biopsy platform to detect cell-free DNA. During the quarter, shares contributed to performance after the company reported better-than-expected fiscal third quarter revenues, driven by accelerated growth in Signatera, as well as continued market share gains within women’s health business. Moreover, higher pricing and product cost control led to gross margin expansion, as management believes this trend should continue as key productivity initiatives like less costly sequencing in the neo-natal franchise are just beginning to positively impact earnings.”
A laboratory environment with technicians in lab coats conducting molecular testing services.
Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 62 hedge fund portfolios held Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) at the end of the third quarter which was 60 in the previous quarter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) announced revenues of $439.8 million, showing a 64% increase compared to Q3 2023, marking a record revenue growth in this quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) 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 Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) and shared stock picks of billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.