Meridian Funds, managed by ArrowMark Partners, released its “Meridian Growth Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. Early gains in large caps and tech leaders expanded to include other sectors and smaller companies, especially later in the quarter. Large companies outperformed small ones, gaining 10.3% and 5.2%, respectively. In the first quarter, the fund returned 2.25% (net) lagging behind the benchmark, the Russell 2500 Growth Index’s 8.51% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Meridian Growth Fund highlighted stocks like RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) is an omnichannel marketplace that offers insights, services, and transaction solutions for buyers and sellers of commercial assets and vehicles. The one-month return of RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) was 5.30%, and its shares gained 32.64% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 25, 2024, RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) stock closed at $77.65 per share with a market capitalization of $14.266 billion.
Meridian Growth Fund stated the following regarding RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) operates an online auction marketplace for used industrial equipment, including earthmoving, agricultural, and transportation vehicles. Given its large global network and scale advantages, we believe the company is well positioned for additional growth from its single-digit market share position today. While market uncertainty lingered around its recent acquisition of IAA, Inc., we saw strong fundamentals within its core heavy equipment auctions business and expect strong pricing and volumes to drive incremental profitability. The company has also made progress on its auto salvage performance with continued improvements in asset turns which should position the company for incremental market share gains going forward. The stock rose during the quarter on continued strong results that were devoid of lingering distractions that had previously held back the stock. Underlying fundamentals continue to look strong as used equipment supply remains healthy and government-funded infrastructure projects come online. We are also monitoring progress on the IAA acquisition front, where we anticipate improved business momentum. During the period, we trimmed the position as the share price appreciated based on our position size and risk management discipline.
A manned excavator operating on a construction site, revealing the company’s commitment to building infrastructure.
RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) at the end of the first quarter which was 33 in the previous quarter. During the first quarter 2024, total GTV of RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) increased by 10% year over year and automotive GTV increased by 6%. While we acknowledge the potential of RB Global, Inc. (NYSE:RBA) 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 Q1 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.
