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 U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) is a financial service holding company. The one-month return of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) was 0.28%, and its shares gained 38.89% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 23, 2024, U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) stock closed at $45.86 per share with a market capitalization of $71.565 billion.
Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) provides banking, payments, investment, trust, and mortgage services to consumers, businesses, and institutions. We own the company because of its historically strong profitability and consistent dividend payouts. The stock underperformed in the quarter due to a downward revision in net interest income guidance, driven by the ongoing shift from non-interest-bearing deposits to higher-cost interest-bearing accounts. To help mitigate the lower net interest income, management is focused on expense control initiatives. We are holding our position in U.S. Bancorp as we monitor the trajectory of net interest income and the success of these expense reductions.”
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U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) at the end of the second quarter which was 36 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) 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 U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and shared the list of best wide moat stocks to buy according to analysts. 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.