Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. According to the Russell 2000 Growth Index, U.S. small cap growth stocks experienced a 1.7% increase in the fourth quarter and a 15% rise for the year 2024. In what proved to be a tumultuous quarter, small caps surged over 10% following the U.S. Presidential election in November, but nearly all of those gains were lost in December as the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated a more gradual reduction in interest rates expected in 2025. In the fourth quarter, the fund delivered 5.09% gross, and 4.73% net of fees compared to a 1.70% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE). NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) offers technology, conformity assessment, consulting solutions, and software applications to public and private sector clients in the infrastructure, utility services, construction, real estate, environmental, and geospatial markets. The one-month return NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) was -4.81%, and its shares lost 32.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 5, 2024, NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) stock closed at $18.22 per share, with a market capitalization of $1.19 billion.
Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“With NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE), we have concerns about execution and management effectiveness. While we like NV5’s collection of unique engineering and infrastructure-related assets, our expectation of the company successfully streamlining its disparate operations to drive better consistency has not played out as expected. With the thesis proving incorrect and concerns arising about NV5’s ability to meet our criteria for effective management and value-creating reinvestment criteria, we determined it was time to move on to better opportunities.”
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NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 14 hedge fund portfolios held NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) at the end of the third quarter which was 14 in the previous quarter. NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) reported a net income of $17.1 million in the third quarter of 2024, compared to $13.1 million in Q3 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) 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 NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) and shared Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy’s views on the company in the previous quarter. 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.