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 FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) acquires and manages aviation and offshore energy equipment for transportation. The one-month return of FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) was 8.98%, and its shares gained 222.54% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 10, 2024, FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) stock closed at $113.89 per share with a market capitalization of $11.641 billion.
Columbia Acorn Fund stated the following regarding FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) is an aviation leasing, maintenance and repair company that has built a unique business model, with exposure to the most attractive part of the aerospace aftermarket today — the CFM56 jet engine (sole-sourced engine for the Boeing 737 family and one of the two engine options for the Airbus A320 family). CFM56 engines are the largest engine market, with more than 22,000 engines manufactured and more than 21,000 in service today. FTAI’s strategic partnerships with Lockheed Martin and other engine manufacturers provide a significant moat. The company is well positioned to take advantage of the utilization of engine leasing assets due to strong demand, as airline traffic continues to pick up amid asset scarcity.”
A team of airline employees surrounded by flight deck controls, with a variety of aircraft outside.
FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 33 hedge fund portfolios held FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) at the end of the second quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) continued its good start to the year and reported adjusted EBITDA of $213.9 million in Q2 2024, up 30% from Q1 2024 and 40% from Q2 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) 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 FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) and shared NCG Small Cap Strategy’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.