Upslope Capital Management, an investment management firm, released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Q4 was the most challenging quarter for upslope. Longs underperformed and shorts dragged. Similarly, month to date performance was also challenging. The fund returned -7.3% (net) in Q4 compared to +0.4% and +0.3% for the S&P Midcap 400 ETF (MDY) and HFRX Equity Hedge Index, respectively. In 2024, the fund’s return was +9.4% (net) compared to +13.6% and +7.8% returns, respectively, for the indexes. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Upslope Capital Management highlighted stocks like V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) in the Q4 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) designs, manufactures, and distributes branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products. The one-month return of V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) was 7.44%, and its shares gained 43.54% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 17, 2025, V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) stock closed at $23.67 per share with a market capitalization of $9.215 billion.
Upslope Capital Management stated the following regarding V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) is the parent company of a number of well-known consumer brands, including The North Face (~36% of revenue), Vans (28%), Timberland (16%), and (my personal favorite) Altra Running (% undisclosed). The Company has had a brutal few years as it completely lost its way under prior management. In the past 18 months, an activist has gotten involved and a new turnaround-focused CEO (successfully turned around Logitech and Old Spice brand), Bracken Darrell, has been brought in. To date, Darrell has “cleaned house” and appears to have put VF back on the right path. It’s still early days, but there are clear qualitative and financial signs that a real turnaround is afoot.
On the qualitative front, the Company has made several impressive hires for key roles. Other than the new CEO, the next most notable hire was the new head of Vans – VF’s most challenged and arguably most important brand today. In June 2024, Sun Choe, the longtime Chief Product Officer at Lululemon, announced her resignation from LULU. In response to this news, LULU shares fell -7% the next day – a ringing endorsement of her talents. Sure enough, VF announced Choe’s appointment as the Global Brand President of Vans one week later…” (Click here to read the full text)
A model walking down the runway wearing a fashionable and performance-based apparel designed by the company.
V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 30 hedge fund portfolios held V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) at the end of the third quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. V.F. Corporation’s (NYSE:VFC) fiscal second quarter revenue was down 6% compared to prior year’s quarter, however, it met expectations with sequential growth and an improving gross margin. While we acknowledge the potential of V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) 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 V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) and shared lowest-scoring stocks in earnings revisions, P/E ratios, EPS growth, and other indicators according to investment bank UBS. 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.