Next Century Growth Investors, LLC, an investment Management Company, released its “Small Cap Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The market continued its rally in the first quarter of 2024; it paused in January but resumed its upward trajectory in February and March. In the quarter the small-cap strategy generated gains from most sectors, except technology where two tech stocks contributed significantly to the index performance. Against this backdrop, the strategy returned 9.35% (net of fees) in the quarter, compared to a 7.58% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Next Century Growth Small Cap Strategy highlighted stocks like Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) offers cloud-based bill payment technology and solutions. The one-month return of Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) was 4.59%, and its shares gained 83.59% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 1, 2024, Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) stock closed at $19.13 per share with a market capitalization of $2.375 billion.
Next Century Growth Small Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) provides a payments platform with next generation bill pay technology serving customers in end markets such as utilities, financial services, insurance, government, telecom and health care. The end market is transitioning away from legacy bill pay 1.0 platforms, that offer limited functionality relative to PAY’s solution. PAY operates in a large end market, and the company targets revenue growth of 20% and operating profit growth that is inline to greater than revenue growth. The company has a strong balance sheet with >$150m cash and no debt.”
A woman using a tablet to navigate the cloud-based bill payment technology.
Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 16 hedge fund portfolios held Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) at the end of the first quarter which was 9 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter, Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) delivered $184.9 million in revenue, representing a 24.6% year-over-year increase. While we acknowledge the potential of Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) 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 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.
