Chartwell Investment Partners, LLC, an affiliate of Carillon Tower Advisers, Inc., released the “Carillon Chartwell Small Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the fund can be downloaded here. Significant interest rate volatility in the second quarter was caused by conflicting economic data and mixed inflation readings. As investors became less confident in the broader economy, the artificial intelligence (AI) boom persisted, and leadership in the equities markets kept decreasing. The Russell 1000® Growth Index, which tracks large-cap growth firms, increased by more than 8% while all other market sectors saw declines, creating an exceptionally sharp return gap. The Russell 2000® Value Index fell by about 4%, with small-cap value companies being the weakest. 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 PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) is a financial and business services company, that engages in the purchase, collection, and management of portfolios of nonperforming loans. The one-month return of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) was -1.18%, and its shares gained 13.99% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 4, 2024, PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) stock closed at $21.84 per share with a market capitalization of $860.874 million.
Carillon Chartwell Small Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) purchases, collects and manages portfolios of nonperforming consumer loans primarily in the United States and Europe. Investors seem to have concerns about the durability of operational changes to improve collections performance and about the effect of a recent debt offering on the company’s cost of capital.”
A senior executive in a board room with company logos and charts in the background.
PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 10 hedge fund portfolios held PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) at the end of the second quarter which was 7 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) purchased $379 million of portfolios, a 16% increase year-over year. While we acknowledge the potential of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) 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 PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) and shared the list of companies that are facing activist pressure. 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.
