Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Focus Fund” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund increased +7.45% and fell short of an +8.99% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index and a +10.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. Investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence (AI), resilient corporate earnings growth, falling inflation, and expectations for interest rate cuts this year led the US indices to outperform in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Ariel Focus Fund highlighted stocks like The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) manufactures and markets food and beverage products. The one-month return of The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) was -1.15%, and its shares lost 25.90% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 10, 2024, The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) stock closed at $112.97 per share with a market capitalization of $12.062 billion.
Ariel Focus Fund stated the following regarding The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“We also repurchased former holding and leading manufacturer of consumer food products, The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) after the market reacted negatively to the company’s recent acquisition of snack-maker Hostess. In our view, iconic brands produce consistent returns on stable consumer demand. After several years of inflationary pressures, SJM’s disciplined management team has successfully been able to pass through higher pricing to cover increased costs. Meanwhile, SJM generates relatively high levels of free cash flow, which allows it to deploy cash between business growth initiatives (brand investment, business expansion, and M&A) and shareholder return programs (dividend increases and share repurchases).”
A wholesaler distributing peanut butter, fruit spreads and specialty spreads to a retailer.
The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 37 hedge fund portfolios held The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) at the end of the first quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. During the quarter, J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) reported comparable net sales growth of 3%. (See the details here). While we acknowledge the potential of The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) 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 The J. M. Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) and shared the list of best cookies and crackers stocks to buy. 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.
