Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Value Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund was up 1.97% in the fourth quarter compared to a 1.06% fall for the Russell 2000 Value Index. The fund outperformed the benchmark over the past 1, 3, and 5 years. As in the previous 1, 3, and 5 years, stock selection accounted for almost all of the fourth-quarter outperformance. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Heartland Value Fund highlighted stocks like Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) in the Q4 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) is a packaging solutions provider that operates through Food and Protective segments. The one-month return of Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) was -5.29%, and its shares lost 7.12% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 13, 2025, Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) stock closed at $33.66 per share with a market capitalization of $4.9 billion.
Heartland Value Fund stated the following regarding Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Investors seem to be chasing momentum in Industrials, as evidenced by passive flows into sector ETFs, while showing little interest in packaging stocks, a subsector of materials. Throughout the year, we have been paying particularly close attention to possible opportunities within packaging in anticipation of renewed interest.
One leading producer, Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE), a global packager, caught our attention. After thorough research, we determined SEE was mispriced by Wall Street, selling substantially below its intrinsic worth and less than half the market’s price/earnings ratio.”
A forklift operator stacking shelves with packaged goods in a warehouse.
Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) at the end of the third quarter which was 40 in the previous quarter. Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) ended the third quarter with $1.35 billion in sales and $276 million in adjusted EBITDA, both of which were 3% lower compared to last year on a reported basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) 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 Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) and shared the list of best utility stocks to buy. 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.