Ensemble Capital Management, an investment management company, released its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund saw exceptionally excellent absolute and relative performance in the fourth quarter. The fund was up 16.00% in the quarter while the S&P 500 appreciated 11.69%. The fund was up 21.75% for the full year vs the S&P 500 up 26.29%. The fund’s underperformance was due to its investment in First Republic, which the fund exited in March. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Ensemble Capital Management featured stocks such as Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) offers human capital management solutions for payroll, human resources, insurance, and retirement for small and medium-sized businesses. On January 17, 2024, Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) stock closed at $120.11 per share. One-month return of Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) was 1.02%, and its shares gained 3.97% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) has a market capitalization of $43.218 billion.
Ensemble Capital Management stated the following regarding Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) (3.71% weight in the Fund): While employment growth was strong in 2023, the Fed’s efforts to moderate job growth was successful. Paychex business is driven by the number of employees on the payrolls of its small to medium size business customers. With recession worries percolating all year, the stock was flat on a year to date basis in late October just as the economic outlook began to brighten. As recession worries faded the stock rallied to gains of as much as 13% in the fourth quarter. But in the late December earnings report, the company said that core payroll services growth would be a bit weaker than investors expected. Despite this, the company slightly raised full year earnings guidance as demand for their full service solution that incorporates human resources services beyond payroll improved. The stock finished the quarter up 4.1%.”
Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) is not our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) at the end of third quarter which was 42 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) in another article and shared the list of stocks whose price targets were recently raised by analysts. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.