Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s net return was 3.7% compared to the Standard & Poor’s 4.3%, the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 8.3%, and the Russell 1000 Value Index’s -2.2% return for the same period. Year to date the composite returned 15.7% compared to the 15.3%, 20.7%, and 6.6% 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 PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a technology platform that enables digital payments. The one-month return of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) was 3.59%, and its shares lost 17.49% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 17, 2024, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock closed at $61.24 per share with a market capitalization of $64.06 billion.
Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) detracted from portfolio performance during the quarter despite continued solid corporate performance. Revenues grew +10% (FX neutral), while adjusted operating income grew +15%, driven by higher transaction margin dollars and excellent expense discipline. The Company’s core branded payments volume accelerated compared to last quarter and continues to grow in line with e-commerce. PayPal has several investment initiatives that we expect will contribute to accelerating growth over the next few years to help take advantage of their leading market share in e-commerce payments. The Company serves over 35 million online merchants. PayPal’s large, online merchant acceptance base is a rare and crucial component to profitably monetizing payment volumes that many competitors lack. The Company trades at earnings multiples that we think are quite cheap, given its strong positioning in the long-term secular expansion of global e-commerce.”
A consumer in a cafe paying for goods using a mobile payment app.
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 82 hedge fund portfolios held PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) at the end of the first quarter which was 87 in the previous quarter. The first quarter revenue of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) increased by 9% to reach $7.7 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) 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 PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and shared ClearBridge All Cap Growth Strategy’s views on the company. In Q1 2024 letter, Wedgewood Partners shared thoughts about its investment in PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL). 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.
