Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Focus Fund” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund increased +7.45% and fell short of an +8.99% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index and a +10.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. Investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI), resilient corporate earnings growth, falling inflation, and expectations for interest rate cuts this year led the US indices to outperform in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Ariel Focus Fund highlighted stocks like APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) engages in oil and natural exploration, development, and production. The one-month return of APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) was -2.78%, and its shares lost 11.77% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 10, 2024, APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) stock closed at $29.69 per share with a market capitalization of $11.021 billion.
Ariel Focus Fund stated the following regarding APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Oil and natural gas explorer, APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA, also traded lower in the quarter following an earnings miss. Weaker than expected production guidance and an upcoming increase in capital investment weighed on investor sentiment. Additionally, the company’s pending acquisition of Callon Petroleum Company, which stands to enhance the scale of APA’s existing Delaware Basin assets and appears accretive to key financial metrics in late 2024 and beyond, is still being digested by investors. Nonetheless, APA continues to deliver strong well performance in the Permian Basin and express confidence in its Suriname development, as it continues to work with TotalEnergies to complete a plan for the oil hub. Management remains focused on free cash flow generation and returning capital to shareholders.”
Workers in hard hats and safety gear processing oil and gas in a US refinery.
APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 45 hedge fund portfolios held APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) at the end of the first quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) delivered a consolidated net income of $132 million for the first quarter 2024 or $0.44 per diluted common share. While we acknowledge the potential of APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) 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 APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) and shared the list of best natural gas and oil dividend stocks to buy. APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) experienced a decline in the previous quarter, as indicated in the Ariel Focus Fund’s Q4 2023 investor letter. 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.
