ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Value Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Infrastructure rose in the second quarter but lagged behind global equities, as the strength in defensive sectors diminished towards the end of the quarter. The Strategy underperformed in the quarter relative to the S&P Global Infrastructure Index and on a U.S. dollar basis, mainly driven by the stock selection in the rails sector. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Value Strategy highlighted stocks like Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) engages in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods in the United States. The one-month return of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) was -3.78%, and its shares gained 28.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 27, 2024, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) stock closed at $246.47 per share with a market capitalization of $55.726 billion.
ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Value Strategy stated the following regarding Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) is one of the five leading North American rail companies, engaged in the transportation of rail freight in the Southeast, East and Midwest U.S. and, via interchange with other rail carriers, to and from the rest of the U.S. and Canada.
The U.S. railroad sector was weak in the quarter after rail companies talked down second-quarter results during conference season. This was on the back of a loose truck market, which has placed pressure on tariff increases for the railroads. While the pace of recovery in the U.S. freight market has been slower than our original expectations, we still expect an improvement in the operating environment in the back half of 2024 and early 2025, as excess trucking transportation capacity continues to rationalize in the softer pricing environment. We expect transportation supply and freight demand rebalancing to bode well for U.S. rails.”
A bird’s eye view of a long freight train rumbling along the tracks.
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) at the end of the second quarter which was 54 in the previous quarter. The second quarter revenue of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) was just above $3 billion, down 2% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) 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 Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) and shared the list of best transportation stocks to invest in along with the industry’s growth prospects. The London Company Large Cap Strategy increased its stake in Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) in Q2f2024 due to its attractive valuation. 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.