ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Strong corporate earnings, enthusiasm over AI, and anticipation of interest rate cuts boosted the equity market rally in the first quarter. The growth stocks outperformed their value counterparts during the quarter as benchmark Russell 2500 Growth Index returning 8.51% versus the 6.07% return of the Russell 2500 Value Index. Against this backdrop, the strategy underperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark in the quarter. Industrials and healthcare sectors were the leading contributors while the real estate and IT sectors detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) offers freight transportation services that operates in North American LTL and European Transportation segments. The one-month return of XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) was -3.55%, and its shares gained 86.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 24, 2024, XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) stock closed at $105.39 per share with a market capitalization of $12.26 billion.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Stock selection in the industrials sector was also a positive contributor to performance, led by Vertiv and XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO). XPO provides freight transportation services in the U.S. and Europe through its less-than-truckload (‘LTL’) services. The company saw its share price jump after fourth-quarter performance and earnings came in solidly above market expectations due to higher sales, and continued improvement in operating margins.”
A convoy of freight trucks on a highway, reflecting industrial freight transportation.
XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 47 hedge fund portfolios held XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) at the end of the first quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter. XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) reported a 6% year-over-year revenue growth to $2 billion in the first quarter and increased adjusted EBITDA by 37% to $288 million. While we acknowledge the potential of XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) 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.
We discussed XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) in another article and shared the list of best logistics 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.
