Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Global Fund” second-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the Ariel Global fund fell -3.12% underperforming the +2.87% return of its primary benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index, and -0.59% return of its secondary benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Value Index. Ariel follows a non-consensus approach to identify undervalued, out-of-favor franchises that are misunderstood and mispriced. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Ariel Global Fund highlighted stocks like NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) offers a range of enterprise software, systems, and services that customers use to transform their data infrastructures. The one-month return of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was 4.84%, and its shares gained 74.17% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 27, 2024, NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) stock closed at $133.12 per share with a market capitalization of $27.365 billion.
Ariel Global Fund stated the following regarding NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Market leader for computer storage systems, NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) advanced over the quarter following a top- and bottom-line earnings beat. Strong growth across its All-Flash, Block, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Public Cloud products, tight cost controls and operating margin expansion drove the outperformance. Additionally, management raised the quarterly dividend, announced a buyback program and reiterated its commitment to return 100% of free cash flow to shareholders in 2025, further aiding shares. We believe NetApp is well-positioned to benefit from its cloud storage service as it helps companies move data between public and private clouds seamlessly. Meanwhile, we remain excited about the company’s digital transformation projects involving business analytics, AI and data security.”
A multi-monitor workstation displaying data-centric services.
NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) at the end of the second quarter which was 41 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) 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 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) and shared Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund’s views on the company. 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.