Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the “Parnassus Growth Equity Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 4.85% (net of fees) underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 7.07% gain. For the year, the fund returned 26.85% compared to Russell 1000 Growth’s 33.36% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Parnassus Growth Equity Fund emphasized stocks such as UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was 0.16%, and its shares gained 2.34% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 19, 2025, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $503.20 per share with a market capitalization of $460.28 billion.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We sold two Health Care positions during the quarter, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and insurerUnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). UnitedHealth’s business model is becoming higher-risk, which coupled with slowing Medicare Advantage growth and regulatory uncertainty led to us exiting the position.
After the UnitedHealth stock price recovered to its historical multiple in early November, we felt it was an opportune time to sell based on our concerns about slowing Medicare Advantage growth and the company’s growing business complexity and risk.”
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 18th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 150 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 112 in the previous quarter. In 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced revenues exceeding $400 billion, and adjusted earnings per share reached $27.66, which fell within the outlook ranges it established over a year ago. While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) 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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of best strong buy stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.