Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its “Madison Investors Fund” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund (Class Y) fell by 1.03% compared to a 4.28% return for the S&P 500 index. YTD the fund returned 8.50% compared to a 15.29% return for the index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Madison Investors Fund highlighted stocks like Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) is a home improvement retailer. The one-month return of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) was 4.79%, and its shares gained 2.47% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 18, 2024, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) stock closed at $239.37 per share with a market capitalization of $136.544 billion.
Madison Investors Fund stated the following regarding Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“At home improvement retailer Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW), sales continue to be weak. The economic backdrop in housing is particularly interesting at the moment. On one hand, employment levels are healthy and home values remain resilient. On the other hand, housing turnover, which is essentially the number of homes that have been sold relative to the housing stock, is at historically low levels as homeowners are resistant to giving up low mortgage rates on their current home for a higher rate on a new home. Housing turnover is an important business driver for Lowe’s, so the depressed level of activity has weighed on its profits. However, over time we expect it to normalize and Lowe’s performance to improve.”
A family excitedly browsing through the aisles of a home improvement retail store.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 60 hedge fund portfolios held Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) at the end of the first quarter which was 68 in the previous quarter. The first quarter sales of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) were $21.4 billion, with comparable sales down 4.1% from Q1 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) 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 Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) and shared the list of best dividend kings to buy for safe dividend growth. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.