Conestoga Capital Advisors, an asset management company, released its “SMid Cap Strategy” fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The strategy outperformed the Russell 2500 Growth Index in the fourth quarter with a total return of 13.26% net-of-fess versus the benchmark return of 12.59%. The market had significant volatility throughout the quarter, as the Index experienced a decline of approximately -8% from the start of the period until October 27th. However, by year’s conclusion, stocks had rallied by over 22%. Both during the downturn and the recovery, the SMid Cap strategy was able to outperform despite the significant fluctuations in benchmark returns. For the full year 2023, the Smid Cap Composite’s return of 26.61% outperformed the benchmark’s gain of 18.93%. Strong stock selection and positive sector allocation effects were cited as the main causes of the excess returns. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Conestoga Capital Advisors SMid Cap Strategy featured stocks such as John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) offers technology solutions to food and beverage industry and equipment and services to air transportation industries. On February 16, 2024, John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) stock closed at $103.41 per share. One-month return of John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) was 4.18%, and its shares lost 7.99% of their value over the last 52 weeks. John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) has a market capitalization of $3.292 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors SMid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT): JBT is a leading global food processing and air transportation solutions provider, recognized for its technology and service leadership. The stock underperformed the market late in the quarter after announcing a nonbinding proposal to acquire all the shares of publicly traded Icelandic food processing company Marel for $2.6 billion. While the initial offer was subsequently rejected by the Marel Board of Directors, a second offer was proposed and is currently under review.”
A close-up of a technician mixing ingredients in a large food processing factory.
John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) was held by 23 hedge fund portfolios, up from 15 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) in another article and shared the list of stocks that Jim Cramer is Bullish on. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.
