ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fed’s rate cut in September contributed to a shift from large-cap generative AI winners to a broader range of market leadership, particularly in small-cap stocks. However, the strategy underperformed its benchmark in the third quarter because weaknesses in the communication services and IT sectors outweighed the strong performances in health care and consumer discretionary. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy highlighted stocks like Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) develops and supplies entertaining game content, gaming machines, and gaming systems and services. The one-month return of Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) was 0.98%, and its shares gained 28.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 6, 2025, Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI) stock closed at $13.51 per share with a market capitalization of $1.165 billion.
ClearBridge Small Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We exited our position in Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI), in the consumer discretionary sector, which provides games, cash access and customer relationship technologies to the casino industry. The company announced its intention to be acquired during the period by Apollo Global Management and, as we did not anticipate a better offer for the company, we elected to sell the position.”
Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) at the end of the third quarter which was 29 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) 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 Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI) and shared Meridian Small Cap Growth Fund’s views on the company. 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.