ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Growth Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Signs of inflation cooling, and an ambitious Federal Reserve rate-cutting cycle led to broad equity market gains in Q3, primarily driven by smaller capitalization companies. In the quarter value shares outperformed with the Russell Midcap Value increasing 10.08% compared to the Russell Midcap Growth Index’s 6.54% gain. Against this backdrop, the strategy underperformed the Russell Midcap Growth Index benchmark. Idiosyncratic headwinds across a few of the Strategy’s holdings hindered performance. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is a company that offers cosmetic and skin care products. The one-month return of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) was -8.83%, and its shares lost 1.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 8, 2024, E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) stock closed at $104.01 per share with a market capitalization of $5.865 billion.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF), a disruptor in the beauty and skin care industry, also saw it shares sell off as intra-quarter channel data for the beauty category came in weaker than analysts expected. Though the company did not see the typical back to school lift in the U.S., strength in digital and international channels enabled ELF to reiterate its full-year guidance. The company remains a share gain story in the early stages of penetrating both international and skincare opportunities. While not immune from broader trends in the category, ELF is increasing the breadth of its offerings across more channels and regions, which should help to blunt the impact of current headwinds.”
A close up of the lip and eye products from the company on a model in a fashion and beauty shoot.
E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) at the end of the second quarter which was 33 in the previous quarter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc.’s (NYSE:ELF) revenue grew 50% year-over-year in the fiscal first quarter of 2025, driven by strong sales across all channels. While we acknowledge the potential of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) 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 E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) and shared Shelton Sustainable Equity Fund’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.