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 Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is a bandgap semiconductor company that focuses on silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. The one-month return of Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) was 16.69%, and its shares lost 71.78% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 8, 2024, Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) stock closed at $9.51 per share with a market capitalization of $1.207 billion.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We exited long-time holding Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF), a leading global supplier of silicon carbide substrate wafers and devices. After giving management ample time to ramp production at its new Mohawk Valley facility, we closed the position due to continued execution missteps and cyclical headwinds impacting electric vehicle, industrial and energy applications that have repeatedly pushed the company’s path to profitability further out.”
A worker assembling metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) on a conveyer belt.
Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) at the end of the second quarter which was 33 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) 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 Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) and shared the list of companies that are facing activist pressure. Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) detracted from the performance of ClearBridge Multi Cap Growth Strategy in Q3 2023. 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.