Fred Alger Management, an investment management company, released its “Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter of 2024, U.S. equities performed well, with the S&P 500 rising 4.28%. Against this backdrop, Class A shares of the fund outperformed the Russell 2500 Growth Index in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund highlighted stocks like Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) develops and commercializes molecular testing services. The one-month return of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) was 18.71%, and its shares gained 89.16% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 30, 2024, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) stock closed at $118.26 per share with a market capitalization of $14.627 billion.
Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund stated the following regarding Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a specialty lab providing genetic testing services in the reproductive health, oncology and transplant markets. Reproductive health tests are run to screen for common genetic disorders such as trisomy 13, 18, and 21 in pregnant women – these tests are also known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). The company’s oncology franchise is led by Signatera, a test used to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) – the applications of this test are primarily to monitor therapy response and detect cancer recurrence. Lastly, Natera’s transplant franchise is led by Prospera, a test used to monitor transplant organ rejection. Natera’s tests are all based on the company’s proprietary liquid biopsy platform to detect cell-free DNA. During the quarter, shares contributed to performance as the company reported strong fiscal first quarter results, where revenues and profit margins came in above analyst estimates. Better-than-expected revenues stemmed from higher test volumes and reimbursement rates, especially for the company’s Signature test which is used to monitor cancer recurrence. Additionally, management raised its 2024 revenue and profit margin guidance.”
A laboratory environment with technicians in lab coats conducting molecular testing services.
Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 60 hedge fund portfolios held Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) at the end of the second quarter which was 58 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) 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 Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) and shared Morgan Stanley’s highest conviction stocks and the top stocks to buy. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) contributed to Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund’s performance in the previous quarter as well. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
