Conestoga Capital Advisors, an asset management company, released its “Small Cap Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Conestoga Small Cap Composite returned 3.69% in the first quarter compared to 7.58% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The market continued to rise in the first quarter as many major asset classes delivered positive returns. Lack of holdings in Super Micro Computer Inc. (SMCI) and MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR), the largest names in the benchmark, was the major reason for the underperformance of the portfolio relative to the index. In addition, stock selection in the technology sector, especially within the software industry proved challenging. Please check the top 5 holdings of the fund for a better understanding of their best picks for 2024.
Conestoga Capital Advisors Small Cap Strategy highlighted stocks like Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW), with a market capitalization of $593.516 million, is a manufacturer and up fitter of commercial work truck attachments and equipment. One-month return of Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) was 15.35%, and its shares lost 14.67% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 20, 2024, Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) stock closed at $25.70 per share.
Conestoga Capital Advisors Small Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW): PLOW is the nation’s largest manufacturer of work truck attachments for snow and ice management, as well as one of the largest up-fitters and installers of work truck attachments. Along with the lack of snow storms in the Northeast impacted profits in the company’s core snow and ice business, we’ve become increasingly frustrated with the multi-year shortage of chassis needed to meet demand for its work truck refitting business. With so much out of management’s control, we sold the position to zero so that we can redeploy the proceeds in other investments.”
An upfitted commercial work truck parked in a municipal office parking lot.
Douglas Dynamics, Inc.’s (NYSE:PLOW) trailing 12 months revenue is $581.29 million and year over year quarterly revenue growth rate is 15.90%. As per the recent earnings call, the first quarter results of Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) improved across all matrices compared to the first quarter of last year.
Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 8 hedge fund portfolios held Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 8 in the previous quarter.
In another article, we discussed Douglas Dynamics, Inc. (NYSE:PLOW) and shared Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
