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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was -10.20%, and its shares lost 0.58% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 5, 2025, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $475.98 per share with a market capitalization of $435.38 billion.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We trimmed our positions in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), Amazon, ServiceNow, and Gartner during the quarter. We trimmed our position in UnitedHealth to fund the purchase of CoStar Group. Despite short-term margin headwinds, our long-term expectations for UnitedHealth Group remain virtually unchanged, with the trim simply reflecting what we view as a superior investment alternative.”
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 18th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 150 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 112 in the previous quarter. In 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced revenues exceeding $400 billion, and adjusted earnings per share reached $27.66, which fell within the outlook ranges it established over a year ago. While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) 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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of top stocks to buy according to Eagle Capital Management. 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.