Aristotle Capital Boston, LLC, an investment advisor, released its “Small Cap Equity Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The third quarter showed substantial gains for small-cap stocks, with the Russell 2000 index providing a total return of 9.27%. In the third quarter, the fund delivered a return of 7.40% net of fees (7.57% gross of fees) underperforming the Russell 2000 Index’s 9.27% total return. Both security selection and allocation effects drove the underperformance of the strategy in the quarter. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) is a bank holding company for First Interstate Bank. The one-month return of First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) was 4.30%, and its shares gained 24.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 31, 2024, First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) stock closed at $30.80 per share with a market capitalization of $3.22 billion.
Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy stated the following regarding First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK), a financial holding company, provides community banking solutions to individuals, businesses, and municipalities. The company is selling at attractive valuations as we believe company specific self-help initiatives such as repositioning their balance sheet to take advantage of the Fed’s forward curve are underappreciated by the market and not reflected in the current valuation.”
A banker speaking with an elderly couple discussing the benefits of a savings accounts.
First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 15 hedge fund portfolios held First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) at the end of the second quarter which was 16 in the previous quarter. First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) reported a net income of $55.5 million in the third quarter, or $0.54 per share. While we acknowledge the potential of First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK) 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 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.