Chartwell Investment Partners, LLC, an affiliate of Carillon Tower Advisers, Inc., released the “Carillon Chartwell Small Cap Value Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The market leadership shifted abruptly in the third quarter. Small and mid-cap stocks outpaced large caps, while value outperformed growth. Over the past 18 months, growth stocks, especially large and mid caps, have outperformed due to investor interest in artificial intelligence (AI). The Russell 2000® Value Index increased by more than 10%, with positive returns in ten of eleven sectors. Information technology was among the index’s weakest sectors, trailing only energy. The top three sectors are communications services, real estate, and finance. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Carillon Chartwell Small Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin, Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) is an electronic manufacturing services provider. The one-month return of Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) was 10.00%, and its shares gained 54.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 12, 2024, Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) stock closed at $168.44 per share with a market capitalization of $4.563 billion.
Carillon Chartwell Small Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) is an electronics manufacturing services company building low-volume, complex products for customers in healthcare, industrial and aerospace/defense markets. The company reported accelerating business wins and margin improvement from efficiency gains and restructuring action.”
An overhead view of an electronic manufacturing plant, its intricate machinery and precision automation in action.
Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 17 hedge fund portfolios held Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) at the end of the third quarter which was 14 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) 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 Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) and shared the list of best small cap AI stocks to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.