ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy underperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark in the quarter. Although there were strong contributions from a few companies across different sectors, the underperformance relative to the benchmark was minimal during the second quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is an investment banking company, that provides merger and acquisition (M&A), capital market, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory services. The one-month return of Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) was 1.04%, and its shares gained 47.73% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 26, 2024, Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) stock closed at $158.25 per share with a market capitalization of $10.999 billion.
ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Stock selection in the financials sector provided a positive offset, led by Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI), an investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions. The company benefited from increased capital markets activity, seeing upticks in demand for M&A and restructuring.”
A close-up of hands exchanging money and documents, highlighting the ease of doing business with the company.
Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 18 hedge fund portfolios held Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) at the end of the second quarter which was 19 in the previous quarter. In the fiscal first quarter of 2025, Houlihan Lokey, Inc.’s (NYSE:HLI) revenues increased 24% year-over-year to $514 million and adjusted earnings per share rose 37% year-over-year to $1.22. While we acknowledge the potential of Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) 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 Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) and shared Baron FinTech 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.