Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management company, released its “Small Cap Fund” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q4, markets rose unevenly, ending another positive year for markets. Stocks rose generally after the US election, but several lost most or all of their gains before the end of the year. Against this backdrop, the strategy outperformed the Russell 2000 Index in Q4 and for the full year. Relative strength in Q4 was concentrated among industrials holdings outperforming benchmark peers by a wide margin. Additionally, consumer staples and energy holdings also provided relative tailwinds. On the other hand, consumer discretionary holdings were the main cause of strategy’s relative weakness. Even though holdings were quite favorable on an absolute basis, underweight to the technology sector was another headwind in Q4. The strategy returned 0.93% in Q4 and 13.22% in 2024, compared to 0.33% and 11.54% return for Russell 2000 Index for the same periods. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund emphasized stocks such as Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB). Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) is a REIT, that develops and manages a portfolio of convenience retail properties. The one-month return of Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) was 4.72% and YTD its shared gained 6.12% of their value. On February 12, 2025, Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) stock closed at $24.64 per share with a market capitalization of $2.588billion.
Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“As valuations have continued rising and the economic cycle has gotten relatively long in the tooth, it’s become increasingly challenging to find high-quality, small-cap companies trading at attractive discounts to their intrinsic values. However, given the neglected pool of opportunities and our lunch pail mentality, the quarter yielded several new positions to the portfolio, including FTAI Infrastructure, Mesa Laboratories, Cimpress and Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB).
Curbline Properties is a unique real estate investment trust (REIT) that was spun off from Site Centers in Q4. It is the only REIT focused on convenience retail centers and has an underappreciated but attractive niche within commercial property. Further, Curbline has no debt and significant cash on hand, making it an attractive investment opportunity.”
Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 2 hedge fund portfolios held Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) at the end of the third quarter which was 0 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) 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 Curbline Properties Corp. (NYSE:CURB) and shared Merion Road Capital Management’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.