Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen US SMID Company Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. SMID cap stocks initially rose by more than 10% following November’s U.S. Presidential election, in another volatile quarter. However, they relinquished nearly all of those gains in December, as the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled that interest rate cuts would occur more slowly than anticipated, with reductions expected to start in 2025. Against this backdrop, the fund returned 3.0% gross, and 2.7% net of fees compared to the Russell 2500 Growth Index return of 2.4%. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Polen US SMID Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) in the Q4 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) is a payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions provider. The one-month return of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) was -1.94%, and its shares lost 3.65% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 31, 2024, Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) stock closed at $98.50 per share with a market capitalization of $4.327 billion.
Polen US SMID Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We exited Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) given our caution about the existential challenges facing its ATM business due to the rapid shift toward a cashless society. We believe this limits the company’s appreciation potential even if the fundamentals remain attractive. While we still see Euronet as a high-quality business, we identified better opportunities for our capital.”
A distribution centre operations manager overseeing the delivery of point-of-sale (POS) management solutions.
Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 33 hedge fund portfolios held Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) at the end of the third quarter which was 33 in the previous quarter. Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) reported revenue of 1.1 billion, operating income of 182 million, adjusted EBITDA of 226 million, and adjusted EPS of $3.03 in the third quarter 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) 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 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.