Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The portfolio returned -0.28% gross and -0.57 % net of fees in the first quarter compared to an 8.51% return for the Russell 2500 Growth Index. Although the market conditions were relatively stable from the previous quarter, pricing momentum sharply increased in the first quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) is a data analytics and digital operations and solutions company. The one-month return of ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) was 3.99%, and its shares gained 0.14% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 28, 2024, ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) stock closed at $30.23 per share with a market capitalization of $4.911 billion.
Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS), the new position, is an outsourced business services and analytics company with a long track record for driving digital transformation. EXL’s specialization and reputation in the insurance industry have also been points of differentiation and served as a springboard to grow the business. We previously owned EXL in our Small Company Growth strategy but sold it when the company navigated a problematic transition. Encouragingly, the company managed well through that difficult period and upgraded its management team, bringing more discipline to its capital allocation, as evidenced by increasing returns on invested capital. We anticipate mid-teens free cash flow growth and capital to be deployed towards share buybacks and small acquisitions.”
A cross section of a data analyst overviewing code on several monitors.
ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 25 hedge fund portfolios held ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) at the end of the first quarter which was 21 in the previous quarter.
In the first quarter, ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) posted impressive financial performance. The company brought in $436 million in revenue, up 9% year-over-year, and its adjusted earnings per share climbed by 9% to $0.38. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as Microsoft but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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.
