Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned 8.24% in the quarter compared to the Russell Midcap Value Index’s 10.1% return. Stock selection was positive in six of 11 sectors. The strategy outperformed the Russell Midcap Value Index over the last three and five years mostly due to security selection. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) is a talent solutions and business consulting services provider. The one-month return of Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) was 6.29%, and its shares lost 11.95% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 11, 2024, Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) stock closed at $67.24 per share with a market capitalization of $6.997 billion.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
Industrials. A company we added from our watchlist this quarter was Robert Half (NYSE:RHI), a leading temporary staffing and consulting firm that places finance, accounting, and technology experts at small- and medium-sized businesses. Robert Half is an example of a quality value bucket company that we have owned in the past and that we can buy with confidence in the face of a business cycle slowdown. That confidence stems from a belief in the company’s competitive positioning, balance sheet, capital allocation, and proven ability to compound value for its owners over time. This is a playbook we have applied many times before when good businesses are going through a “soft patch.”
We originally held RHI in 2017 and 2018, during a cyclical downturn and subsequent recovery. We revisited RHI in the third quarter of this year after the company’s latest earnings call, in which management indicated that temporary staffing revenue had been lower on a year-over-year basis for seven consecutive quarters. By comparison, this length of decline is comparable to the recessionary conditions experienced in 2001-2002 and 2008-2009…” (Click here to read the full text)
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Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 33 hedge fund portfolios held Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) at the end of the second quarter which was 32 in the previous quarter. Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) generated $1.473 billion in revenues in the second quarter, down 10% year-over-year, on both a reported and as adjusted basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) 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 Robert Half Inc. (NYSE:RHI) and shared the list of best counter-cyclical and defensive stocks to invest in. 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.