Aristotle Capital Boston, LLC, an investment advisor, released its “Small Cap Equity Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The volatility that was seen in 2024 persisted into the fourth quarter. From style perspective, value companies underperformed their growth counterparts during the quarter, with the Russell 2000 Value Index returning -1.06% while the Russell 2000 Growth Index returned 1.70%. In the fourth quarter, the strategy delivered a return of -0.46% net of fees (-0.31% gross of fees) underperforming the Russell 2000 Index’s 0.33% total return. Security selection drove the underperformance of the strategy in the quarter. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) in its Q4 2024 investor letter. Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) engages in the seaborne transportation of petroleum products and chemicals. The one-month return of Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) was -1.85%, and its shares lost 25.16% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 17, 2025, Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) stock closed at $12.24 per share with a market capitalization of $514.22 million.
Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC), a product and chemical transportation company focused on modern mid-sized vessels, experienced headwinds due to a combination of factors including a weakening tanker market with lower spot rates, potential concerns about geopolitical instability impacting shipping routes, and a general market downturn affecting the shipping industry. We maintain a position, as we believe the company continues to operate from a position of strength, driven by recent shareholder-friendly capital allocation decisions, strong operating performance, and a favorable industry supply-demand backdrop.”
A tanker filled with petroleum products, sailing through a calm sea.
Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 22 hedge fund portfolios held Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) at the end of the third quarter which was 20 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) 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 Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) and shared the list of stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar. Ardmore Shipping Corporation (NYSE:ASC) detracted from to Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy’s performance in Q3 2024, due to concerns over oil production and weak Chinese growth, impacting the broader energy sector. 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.