ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy underperformed the benchmark in the quarter. The small-cap growth universe revealed a stark dichotomy despite the positive performance of the benchmark Russell 2000 Growth Index, which returned 7.58% in the first quarter. The Strategy posted gains in 5 of the nine sectors in which it was invested on an absolute basis. Overall stock selection detracted from performance, partially offset by positive sector allocation effects on a relative basis. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy featured stocks Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. On April 9, 2024, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) stock closed at $72.83 per share. One-month return of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) was 1.21%, and its shares gained 310.77% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) has a market capitalization of $7.861 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Finally, not owning biotech Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) for the entire period, another large benchmark weight, which appreciated significantly on GLP-1 potential and which we purchased in March, accounted for another 10% of the underperformance.
Encouragingly, we are seeing underlying improvements from companies we do own in the portfolio, with several being recent portfolio additions or subjects of repositioning work executed in 2023.
The first quarter represented another period of fruitful new idea generation with nine new investments. Consistent with historical practice, these initial investments represent modest position sizes that we intend to build over time.
Viking Therapeutics is focused on metabolic and endocrine diseases. While still early stage, the company has had positive Phase 2 data on a GLP-1/GIP agonist injectable candidate potentially differentiated in mechanism with encouraging results relative to existing approved/pipeline candidates. The company is also pursuing an oral obesity GLP-1/GIP treatment and has a Phase 2 compound to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NASH. Given the strong growth potential in the obesity market, multiple potential products and scarcity value in the small cap universe, we believe this is an attractive potential opportunity with sufficient capital to support near-term clinical development goals.”
A microbiologist in protective gear studying samples in a laboratory.
Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) was held by 25 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 25 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in another article and shared the list of best weight loss drug 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.
