ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Growth Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy’s benchmark switched from the Russell 3000 Growth Index to the Russell Midcap Growth Index, during the quarter. Together with this, the strategy name was simplified from “ClearBridge Aggressive Growth” to “ClearBridge Growth”. Despite the difficult period for smaller cap stocks, the strategy outperformed the benchmark with contributions from holdings in health care and IT. Overall stock selection and sector allocation contributed to performance, relatively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) develops, manufactures, and distributes products primarily for the companion animal veterinary, livestock and poultry, dairy, and water testing markets. The one-month return of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) was -4.38%, and its shares lost 6.76% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 5, 2024, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) stock closed at $486.00 per share with a market capitalization of $40.137 billion.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We diversified our health care exposure with the addition of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX), a provider of diagnostics products for the companion animal and livestock markets. We expect penetration of this large and growing $45 billion market will continue to increase globally, with only 15% being served today. We are also encouraged by the opportunity for company-specific product cycles and consumables pull through to help sustain growth. Finally, despite solid operating margins today, we see multiple levers to drive continued margin expansion for IDEXX.”
A veterinarian in a veterinary clinic examining a companion animal.
IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) at the end of the first quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) reported solid organic revenue growth and strong profit gains, achieving a 7% increase in overall revenues organically. While we acknowledge the potential of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) 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.
We discussed IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in another article and shared the list of largest companies in the U. 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.
