Oakmark Funds, advised by Harris Associates, released its “Oakmark Select Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned 6.01% in the fourth quarter compared to a 2.41% return for the S&P 500 Index. The fund returned 11.88% since its inception compared to the index’s return of 9.82% over the same period. The largest contributing sectors were financials and communication services while the health care and energy sectors detracted. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Oakmark Select Fund highlighted stocks like IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) is an analytical technology services and clinical research-providing company to the life sciences industry. The one-month return of IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) was 3.66%, and its shares lost 6.14% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 14, 2025, IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) stock closed at $197.96 per share with a market capitalization of $35.93 billion.
Oakmark Select Fund stated the following regarding IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) was the top detractor during the quarter. The U.S.-headquartered life sciences tools and services company’s stock price declined due to a reduced near-term outlook in its R&D solutions segment primarily related to a program cancellation and the delay of two large clinical trials that will resume in 2025. However, we believe that the headwinds in this part of the business should abate over the course of 2025. We are also encouraged that growth in the technology and analytics solutions segment is recovering as expected. We believe IQVIA stock is cheap at a mid-teens multiple of normal earnings power.”
A researcher in a lab with a microscope examining a sample.
IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 63 hedge fund portfolios held IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) at the end of the third quarter which was 59 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) 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 IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) and shared the list of top stocks that are poised to disrupt their industries by 2030 with technology according to investment bank UBS. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.