Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Global Fund” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the Ariel Global fund appreciated +7.35% lagging behind the +8.20% gain of its primary benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index, but ahead of the +6.85% return of its secondary benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Value Index. The upward rally of developed markets continued in the first quarter of 2024. The rally was driven by investors’ excitement over artificial intelligence (AI), a rebound in bank lending growth, decreased energy costs, a rise in global manufacturing activity, recent structural reforms in Japan, and the near-term possibility of a rate-cutting cycle in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Ariel Global Fund highlighted stocks like Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells computing and related products and services. The one-month return of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was -4.90%, and its shares lost 14.96% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 13, 2024, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) stock closed at $30.46 per share with a market capitalization of $129.664 billion.
Ariel Global Fund stated the following regarding Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“One of the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturers by revenue, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), also underperformed in the period as management provided a disappointing near-term outlook due to ongoing weakness and inventory right-sizing in non-core products. Nonetheless, Intel delivered solid quarterly earnings results, highlighted by a top-line beat driven by upside from the cyclical recovery of personal computers (PCs) and central processing units (CPUs). In our view, the market is overlooking the progress Intel is making to advance its manufacturing process and regain its technology advantage to compete as a top industry supplier. We believe the separation of the design and manufacturing businesses will be a key catalyst in unlocking improved financial performance while also enhancing the competitiveness of the foundry business.”
A technician soldering components for a semiconductor board.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 77 hedge fund portfolios held Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) at the end of the first quarter which was 86 in the previous quarter. The first-quarter revenue of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was $12.7 billion, an increase of 9% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) 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 Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and shared the list of best hardware stocks according to Goldman Sachs. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
