Meridian Funds, managed by ArrowMark Partners, released its “Meridian Hedged Equity Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the quarter, the fund appreciated 0.92% (net), trailing its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index, which returned 4.28%. Also, the Fund lagged behind its secondary benchmark, the CBOE S&P 500 Buy/Write Index’s 1.49% return. The firm’s approach puts controlling negative risks ahead of pursuing excessive profits. It anticipates that capital preservation in bear markets will eventually play a significant role in the long-term compounding of returns. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Meridian Hedged Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The one-month return of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) was 31.97%, and its shares gained 238.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 23, 2024, Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stock closed at $111.63 per share with a market capitalization of $38.352 billion.
Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company with operations across 20 U.S. states and Washington D.C. We identified Vistra as a likely beneficiary of the projected growth of power-hungry data centers, spurred by the rise of generative AI, increasing electricity demand, and higher power prices. The stock performed well after the company delivered stronger than expected earnings. Management also provided forward guidance that exceeded investors’ expectations and reaffirmed shareholder-friendly plans for sizable share repurchases through 2025. We trimmed our position in the quarter following the strong performance and continue to see strong long-term prospects for the company.”
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Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 92 hedge fund portfolios held Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) at the end of the second quarter which was 79 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) 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 Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) and shared AI news and analyst ratings that you should not miss. 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.