Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Focus Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The U.S. equities have experienced a significant performance surge over the past two years. In the fourth quarter, the strategy returned 4.9% (gross) and 4.65% (net) compared to 7.07% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and 2.41% for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Polen Focus Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) offers life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services. The one-month return of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) was -8.47%, and its shares lost 12.29% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 5, 2025, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) stock closed at $524.19 per share with a market capitalization of $197.756 billion.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) appears to continue to move past COVID-related headwinds that hampered growth in recent years. While the backdrop around big pharma budget cuts and a weaker biotech funding environment have weighed on the stock over the past year, Q4 underperformance seems more related to concerns over increased regulatory scrutiny under the new administration, given RFK Jr.’s appointment as the Trump administration’s head of U.S. Health and Human Services, and his vocal pronouncements against pharmaceutical industry drug pricing. In tough times, pharma and biotech companies lean on suppliers that can deliver the best value. We believe Thermo has a vast offering of products and services bundled at prices that competitors have a hard time matching, allowing them to take significant market share. We maintain our long-term conviction in Thermo as among the most durable compounders in the world, with the ability to drive consistent growth through good and bad macro environments.”
A workstation in a research lab stocked with laboratory products and services.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is in 26th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 100 hedge fund portfolios held Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 98 in the previous quarter. In Q4 2024, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s (NYSE:TMO) revenue grew 5% year-over-year to $11.4 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) 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 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) and shared the list of best dividend stocks. 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.