American Century Investments, an investment management company, released its “International Growth Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Despite periods of volatility, equity markets held steady and ended the quarter higher as interest rates were lowered by central banks. Small-cap stocks outperformed large caps, and value narrowly performed better than growth. As anticipated, the multiyear pattern of value outperformance seems to be slowing down as global inflation declines. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
American Century Investments International Growth Fund highlighted stocks like ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a clinical research organization. The one-month return of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was -1.84%, and its shares lost 25.94% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 30, 2024, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) stock closed at $209.64 per share with a market capitalization of $17.308 billion.
American Century Investments International Growth Fund stated the following regarding ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR): The stock pulled back on news that biotechnology funding has dropped, albeit from very strong growth levels. We continue to believe the company is a beneficiary of long-lasting trends in the pharmaceuticals industry, which support outsourcing to clinical research organizations.”
A laboratory setting with a team of scientists working on a clinical trial.
ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 48 hedge fund portfolios held ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) at the end of the third quarter which was 54 in the previous quarter. ICON Public Limited Company’s (NASDAQ:ICLR) third quarter revenue was $2.03 billion, represents a year-on-year decrease of 1.2% or 1% on a constant currency basis. While we acknowledge the potential of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) 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 ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) and shared TimesSquare Capital U.S. Mid Cap Growth Strategy’s views on the company. 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.