ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Mid Cap Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Beginning in July, a significant shift away from large caps fueled a rebound and helped the Russell Midcap Index beat its peers with larger sizes. The Russell Midcap Index returned 9.21% in the quarter compared to a 6.08% gain of the large-cap Russell 1000 Index. During the quarter, the strategy underperformed its Russell Midcap Index. Detractors in the industrial and communication services sectors outweighed positive contributions from holdings in IT and healthcare. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Mid Cap Strategy highlighted stocks like Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) provides mission-critical products and services to biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries. The one-month return of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) was -6.33%, and its shares gained 26.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 8, 2024, Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) stock closed at $24.80 per share with a market capitalization of $16.86 billion.
ClearBridge Mid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Health care was also a positive contributor in the third quarter. Our top holding in the sector was Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR), a leading global provider of services to customers in the biopharmaceutical, health care, education and government, and advanced technologies and applied materials industries. The company has demonstrated solid execution through a weaker life sciences spending environment and continues to make progress on expanding its margins. With signs of research and development spending stabilizing, we see a number of green shoots appearing both for the biopharma industry and Avantor.”
A team of scientists working together to develop a new lab product or process.
Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 53 hedge fund portfolios held Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) at the end of the second quarter which was 55 in the previous quarter. Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) had a strong second quarter with continued growth in all key financial areas, with revenue reaching $1.7 billion, slightly exceeding projected range. While we acknowledge the potential of Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) 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 Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) and shared Broyhill Asset Management’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.