Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The portfolio returned -8.42% gross and -8.71% net of fees in the second quarter compared to a -4.22% return for the Russell 2500 Growth Index. In the second quarter, there was a shift from lower-quality, high-priced stocks to a more cautious approach due to concerns about high inflation. This led to a widening performance gap between small and mid-sized and large company stocks, as investors turned to lower-volatility sectors. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is a restaurant company that operates under the brand name Wingstop. The one-month return of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) was -12.66%, and its shares gained 118.21% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 29, 2024, Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) stock closed at $367.52 per share with a market capitalization of $10.794 billion.
Polen U.S. SMID Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We exited two positions during the quarter, including Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) and Endava. Wingstop has been a highly successful investment and one of the largest contributors to Portfolio returns over many years. While we see nothing fundamentally wrong with the business, the recent stock price appreciation has been driven more by momentum than fundamentals to the point where we have a hard time making sense of the valuation. We deployed the capital towards new ideas and added to existing holdings with what we view as better what risk-reward profiles.”
Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) at the end of the first quarter which was 32 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter, Wingstop Inc (NASDAQ:WING) reported $145.8 million in revenues, up 34.1% compared to the fiscal first quarter of 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) 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 Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) and shared Artisan Small Cap Fund’s views on the company. 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.
