Columbia Acorn Fund, distributed by Columbia Management Investment Distributors, released its second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the fund can be downloaded here. In the quarter, the fund returned -6.01%, while the benchmark, the Russell 2500 Growth Index, returned -4.22%. The second quarter brought a significant change in market sentiment. The underperformance of the holdings in the quarter was primarily driven by a disappointing earnings season. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings for its best picks for 2024.
Columbia Acorn Fund highlighted stocks like Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) develops and commercializes molecular testing services. The one-month return of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) was 0.19%, and its shares gained 113.93% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 10, 2024, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) stock closed at $118.73 per share with a market capitalization of $14.685 billion.
Columbia Acorn Fund stated the following regarding Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a genomic diagnostics company with a leading market share in non-invasive prenatal screening and a first-mover advantage in the still-developing, but promising, market for cancer recurrence monitoring. Natera was also a top contributor in the first quarter and saw its shares continue to rise on incrementally strong results. Despite the move, we see further upside potential, with 2024 an inflection point for the company based on multiple clinical data catalysts. That said, we did trim the position in the quarter as part of our risk management process.”
A modern pharmaceutical laboratory filled with scientists in lab coats helping to find solutions to rare and complex central nervous system disorders.
Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 60 hedge fund portfolios held Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) at the end of the second quarter which was 58 in the previous quarter. Natera, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:NTRA) second quarter revenues were up 12% from Q1 2024 and up 58% from Q2 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) 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 Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) and shared Brown Capital Management’s views on the company. Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund also benefitted from the strong performance of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) during Q2 2024. 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.