River Road Asset Management, an investment management company released its “River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund” Q4 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, AMG River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund returned 0.43% compared to (1.98%) return for the Russell 1000® Value Index. For the year 2024, the fund returned 24.59% significantly outperforming Index return of 14.37%. Stocks rallied in November after a Republican victory but declined sharply following hawkish Fed comments. Shorter duration stocks, including small caps and value, lost most of their post-election gains by the end of December. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund emphasized stocks such as AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER). AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) engages in the lease, financing, sale, and management of flight equipment. The one-month return AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) was -1.74%, and its shares gained 19.93% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 27, 2025, AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) stock closed at $102.76 per share with a market capitalization of $19.194 billion.
River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund stated the following regarding AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“As of December 31, the portfolio held 29 positions, up four positions from Q3. During Q4, the largest sector increase was 736 bps within industrials, while the largest decrease was -276 bps within consumer discretionary. We established five new positions and eliminated one position
The largest new position added during the quarter was AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER). AerCap Holdings NV (AER) is the undisputed global leader in aviation leasing, managing an extensive portfolio of 3,452 aircraft, along with engines and helicopters. Established in 1975 as one of the first jet lessors, AerCap is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Its executive leadership is spearheaded by Aengus Kelly (50), who has served as CEO since 2011 after joining AerCap’s predecessor GPA in 1998. Paul Dacier (65), a board member since 2010, has been chairman since 2020. Together, they have solidified AerCap’s position as a critical partner to airlines around the world. CEO Aengus Kelly aptly describes the current market environment: “The supply-demand imbalance is more strongly in our favor than we’ve ever seen in our long careers.” The aviation sector faces persistent challenges from supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and component bottlenecks that have kept aircraft deliveries for both narrowbody and widebody models below 2017 levels. Against this backdrop, air travel demand has surged dramatically, with passenger numbers up 156% since 2012 and recent quarterly growth of 12% year-over-year. The International Air Transport Association projects 3.8% annual passenger growth over the next two decades. Airlines increasingly turn to lessors, with leased aircraft now representing over 50% of the global fleet, up from 30% in 2003. Lease terms have extended from five to seven years, while lease rates have jumped over 40% in certain cases over the last couple of years on certain aircrafts…” (Click here to read the full text)
An impressive fleet of aircrafts taking off from the main runway of the Regional Air Carrier services.
AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 69 hedge fund portfolios held AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 68 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) 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 covered AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) in another article, where we shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer was talking about amid tariff chaos. In its Q4 2024 investor letter, O’keefe Stevens Advisory highlighted AerCap Holdings N.V.’s (NYSE:AER) impressive performance in 2024, driven by a dynamic secondary market for used aircraft. 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.