Middle Coast Investing, an investment advisor firm, released its third-quarter investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. It was a frustrating quarter for the firm. The portfolio appreciated 0.7% in the quarter but lagged the main indices and closer benchmarks. The portfolio’s price to earnings for the trailing 12 months (TTM) was 19.7. Cash and equivalents accounted for 17.1% of the portfolio at the end of the quarter, with an estimated average yield of 3%. This compares to 13.4% of the portfolio and a 3.9% yield at the end of Q2. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Middle Coast Investing highlighted stocks like Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) engages in the design, manufacturing, and servicing of ion implantation and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The one-month return of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) was 1.34%, and its shares lost 40.11% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 7, 2024, Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) stock closed at $98.94 per share with a market capitalization of $3.227 billion.
Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS), the semiconductor equipment maker we own in most accounts, is also in transition. Demand for electric vehicles and hybrids has slowed, while demand for memory chips has not yet picked up. Caught in between these cycles, its shares sold off heavily this quarter, and as one of our biggest positions, that hurt our results. It is also a company with a great balance sheet, that has gained share in its sector, and that is exposed to areas of our economy that should grow for years, all while priced relatively cheaply. Micron’s earnings at the end of the quarter suggested the memory recovery is at hand.”
A close-up of an engineer working on precision semiconductor chip fabrication.
Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 25 hedge fund portfolios held Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) at the end of the second quarter which was 25 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) reported $257 million in revenues. While we acknowledge the potential of Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACLS) 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 addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.