Polen Focus Growth Strategy Trimmed Gartner (IT) due to Value Related Reasons

Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Focus Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The U.S. equities have experienced a significant performance surge over the past two years. In the fourth quarter, the strategy returned 4.9% (gross) and 4.65% (net) compared to 7.07% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and 2.41% for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Polen Focus Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT). Established in 1979, Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) is a research and advisory company that operates through research, conferences, and consulting segments. The one-month return of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) was -8.27%, and its shares gained 4.31% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 5, 2025, Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) stock closed at $490.27 per share with a market capitalization of $37.66 billion.

Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We trimmed our positions in UnitedHealth Group, Amazon, ServiceNow, and Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) during the quarter. Similarly, with Gartner, we felt it prudent to trim the position as the stock trades above 40x earnings and 35x free cash flow at a time when the business is growing below our longer term expectations.”

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 57 hedge fund portfolios held Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. Gartner, Inc.’s (NYSE:IT) fourth quarter revenue was $1.7 billion, representing an 8% year-over-year increase. While we acknowledge the potential of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) 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 Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT) and shared Baron Growth Fund’s views on the company. 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.