Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s net return was 5.5% compared to the Standard & Poor’s 2.4%, the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 7.1%, and the Russell 1000 Value Index’s -2.0% return for the same period. Year to date, the composite returned 29.1% compared to the 25.0%, 33.4%, and 14.4% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Wedgewood Partners highlighted stocks like O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) is a retailer and supplier of automotive aftermarket parts, tools, supplies, equipment, and accessories. The one-month return of O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) was -0.85%, and its shares gained 18.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 15, 2025, O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) stock closed at $1,204.04 per share with a market capitalization of $69.51 billion.
Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) modestly contributed to performance for the quarter and for the year. After a few years of outsized revenue and earnings growth, O’Reilly delivered more normalized sales and earnings growth in 2024 but continues to dominate in the highly fragmented automotive parts industry. As we have noted in the past, the Company has a mostly singular focus on the U.S. market, while several competitors have diverted their attention and investments away from the large and fragmented domestic market toward non-U.S. or nonautomotive markets. O’Reilly has taken profit share, particularly in the faster growing do-it-for-me (DIFM) end markets, by focusing both its hiring and capital expenditures on their U.S. stores and distribution infrastructure, while limiting acquisitions. We would consider adding to our positions in the future if short-term investors ever soured on shares due to protracted bouts of mild weather.”
A mechanic working on a car in an auto shop, skillfully replacing the aftermarket parts.
O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 41 hedge fund portfolios held O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) at the end of the third quarter which was 52 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) 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 O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORLY) and shared Qualivian Investment Partners’ views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.