Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management company, released its “Long-Short Fund” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The portfolio achieved positive returns in Q4 but trailed the Russell 1000 Index and outperformed the blended benchmark (60% Russell 1000 Index/40% Bloomberg US Treasury Bills 1-3 Month Index). The short positions didn’t perform as well as the index, giving a relative tailwind to the performance. The long positions in financials and communication services also contributed to relative strength. On the other hand, long holdings in health care and industrials were positive on an absolute basis but lagged behind benchmark peers, which hindered relative performance in Q1. In addition, you may look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to learn about its best picks in 2024.
Diamond Hill Capital Long-Short Fund highlighted stocks like Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) designs, manufactures, and services custom-engineered equipment and systems. The one-month return of Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) was -17.39%, and its shares gained 132.35% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 28, 2024, Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) stock closed at $143.40 per share with a market capitalization of $1.697 billion.
Diamond Hill Capital Long-Short Fund stated the following regarding Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“As valuations have risen, it has become increasingly challenging to find high-quality companies trading at interesting valuations. Accordingly, we didn’t initiate any new long positions during the quarter. However, we did introduce three new short positions, including Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL), Royal Caribbean Group and YETI Holdings.
Powell Industries designs, manufactures and services complex electrical systems for several industries. While recent fundamentals have been solid, we believe the valuation has become stretched for what has historically been a highly cyclical business and accordingly initiated a new short position in Q1.”
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Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 24 hedge fund portfolios held Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) at the end of the first quarter which was 19 in the previous quarter. The revenue of Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) in the quarter increased by 49% to $255. While we acknowledge the potential of Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) 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.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.