Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the “Parnassus Growth Equity Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 3.74% (net of fees) underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 8.33%. Stock selection in the Information Technology sector primarily drove the portfolio’s underperformance. Also, overweight position and stock selection in the Financials sector detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund highlighted stocks like MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI), provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community. The one-month return of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) was -4.21%, and its shares gained 12.73% of their value over the last three months. On September 20, 2024, MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) stock closed at $551.41 per share with a market capitalization of $43.341 billion.
Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“The Financials sector continues to be our largest sector overweight position. We opportunistically added market index provider MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) during the quarter. We believe MSCI complements our existing names as a must-have data provider to the asset management industry. Like our other holdings, MSCI has unique end market exposure, high operating leverage and limited balance sheet risk. MSCI, a global provider of market indices, demonstrates category leadership, high margins, stickiness of customer relations, and a strong history of careful capital allocation and shareholder returns. We acquired the stock at an attractive valuation due to weak earnings that we believe are short term in nature and should improve over time.”
A successful portfolio manager working on a laptop in a large office with a city view, representing the success of the company in the financial sector.
MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 47 hedge fund portfolios held MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) at the end of the second quarter which was 53 in the previous quarter. MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) reported earnings per share growth of 12% and organic revenue growth of 10% in the second quarter 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) 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 MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) and shared Aoris International Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.