Investment management company First Pacific Advisors recently released its “FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund returned -2.62% compared to a -3.64% return for the Russell 2000 Value Index. In the first half of 2024, the fund returned 0.65% versus -0.85% for the index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) is a bank holding company for ServisFirst Bank that offers various banking services to individual and corporate customersThe one-month return of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) was -6.85%, and its shares gained 26.96% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 13, 2024, ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) stock closed at $73.46 per share with a market capitalization of $4.006 billion.
FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) is a conservatively run lending franchise helmed by Tom Broughton. Tom hires local bankers but doesn’t build branches – this allows for best-in-class efficiency metrics while maintaining a strong and conservative lending culture. Return on equity (ROE) and average earnings per share growth were near 20% for the 10 years through 2022 – very attractive for a conservative, plain vanilla commercial lender.21 SFBS’s share price declined significantly with other regional banks in 2023 as rising rates put pressure on deposit pricing, NIMs (net interest margins), and ROE (return on equity). Shares are up since the depth of regional banking crisis, and during the Q1 2024 earnings call, management said that NIM is improving as loan growth re-accelerates and the asset side of their balance sheet reprices higher.”
A customer smiling as he signs a consumer loan agreement in a regional bank branch.
ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 10 hedge fund portfolios held ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) at the end of the first quarter which was 13 in the previous quarter. ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc.’s (NYSE:SFBS) margin increased to $106.9 million in the second quarter compared to $102.5 million in the first quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of ServisFirst Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:SFBS) 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 addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
