Investment management company Vulcan Value Partners recently released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In 2024, the US economy was stronger than expected; the large-cap stocks led the robust U.S. equities markets. Although it is still excessively high, inflation did decrease throughout the course of the year. The largest market cap U.S. Companies performed better than the whole market. Lastly, U.S. stocks outperformed the majority of equities in non-U.S. markets. During Q4 and 2024, Focus and Focus Plus were the best performing strategies while Small Cap was the worst performing. However, all strategies had positive returns for the year. In the quarter, the Large Cap Composite returned -0.1% net of fees and expenses, the Small Cap Composite returned -7.3% net, the Focus Composite returned 6.3% net, the Focus Plus composite returned 7.4% and the All-Cap Composite returned -2.5% net. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Vulcan Value Partners highlighted stocks like Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) is a home and security products provider. The one-month return of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) was 7.03%, and its shares lost 4.20% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 17, 2025, Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) stock closed at $74.57 per share with a market capitalization of $9.26 billion.
Vulcan Value Partners stated the following regarding Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We purchased two new positions during the quarter: Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) and The Middleby Corp. Fortune Brands Innovations is a leading manufacturer of home and security products, with a diverse portfolio of well-known brands. The company sells faucets, shower heads, and other plumbing products with its primary brand being Moen. Other products include security doors, composite decking, locks, and safes. Fortune Brands Innovations has a portfolio of iconic and trusted brands with strong consumer recognition and loyalty. Additionally, the company has a global supply chain, reputation for quality, and strong relationships with distributors, retailers, plumbers, and others in the industry. These brands and relationships have been in place for decades, and the company holds leading market positions in many of its product categories. After experiencing strong double-digit organic growth during Covid, the company’s organic growth has declined at a low- to mid-single digit rate over the last three years. The company’s more recent results have suffered due to pulled forward demand during the pandemic and weak remodeling and home sales activity. During this time, Fortune Brands Innovations maintained profitability and generated strong free cash flow. We expect the company’s organic growth rate to rebound to a mid-single digit pace over the next several years.”
On-site technicians inspecting a water management system.
Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) at the end of the third quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc.’s (NYSE:FBIN) sales were $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2024, down 8% from Q3 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) 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 Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:FBIN) and shared Jim Cramer’s bold predictions about industrial stocks. 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.