Fred Alger Management, an investment management company, released its “Alger Small Cap Growth Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities rose in Q1 in anticipation of a soft landing. Corporate earnings added another boost to the soft-landing narrative. Class A shares of the fund outperformed the Russell 2000 Growth Index during the quarter. The consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors contributed to the fund’s relative performance in the quarter, while information technology and industrials detracted from performance. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Alger Small Cap Growth Fund highlighted stocks like Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The one-month return of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) was -31.41%, and its shares gained 121.90% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 6, 2024, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) stock closed at $55.01 per share with a market capitalization of $6.066 billion.
Alger Small Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for patients suffering from metabolic and endocrine disorders. Their lead drug VK2809, a beta-selective thyroid hormone receptor agonist, is in development for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Their VK2735 drug is a GLP-1 dual agonist being developed for patients with obesity. During the quarter, shares contributed to performance after the company released statistically significant results for their subcutaneous and oral GLP-1 drugs, demonstrating best-in-class efficacy and safety profile. Given that approximately one-third of U.S. adults suffer from obesity, we believe the company’s GLP-1 drug has the potential to address a large market once approved.”
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Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 52 hedge fund portfolios held Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) at the end of the first quarter which was 25 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) reported positive results from two of its major pipeline initiatives. While we acknowledge the potential of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) 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 Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) and shared Jim Cramer’s list of stocks that you should not buy. The Carillon Eagle Small Cap Growth first quarter 2024 investor letter listed Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) as one of its top-performing stocks. 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.
