ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The firm focuses on companies with strong balance sheets and attractive cash flows with compelling valuations rather than following market trends. The strategy outperformed the benchmark Russell 2000 Value Index in the first quarter and generated gains across 11 sectors in which it was invested, on an absolute basis. Overall stock selection effects contributed to the performance on a relative basis. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy highlighted stocks like Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) is a heavy construction material and light building materials supplier. The one-month return of Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) was -5.70%, and its shares gained 32.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 18, 2024, Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) stock closed at $228.48 per share with a market capitalization of $7.736 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy stated the following regarding Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Our top individual performer for the quarter was Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP), which manufacturers a range of construction materials including cement, gypsum wallboard and recycled paperboard. The stock extended its gains on a more optimistic economic outlook and after it exceeded quarterly expectations on both revenue and earnings. We believe the company’s continued strong pricing power in its cement business and cost advantages versus its peers in its wallboard business should allow it to continue to maintain attractive returns on capital.”
A construction site with workers in hard hats building a new commercial property, financing provided by the regional bank.
Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 30 hedge fund portfolios held Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) at the end of the first quarter which was 26 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) 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 Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE:EXP) and shared the list of stock picks of Seth Klarman from the first quarter of 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
