Ariel Investments, an investment management company, released its “Ariel Fund” third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Due to the economy’s resilience and forecasters’ expectations of a soft landing, all major U.S. indices saw gains in the third quarter. The Federal Reserve turned its attention to the state of the labor market as interest rate reduction was implemented. Against this backdrop, Ariel Fund appreciated +12.08% in Q3 outperforming both the Russell 2500 Value and Russell 2500 indices, which returned +9.63% and +8.75%. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Ariel Fund highlighted stocks like Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ), in the third quarter of 2024 investor letter. Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) is a financial advisory and asset management firm. The one-month return of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) was 4.99%, and its shares gained 72.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 14, 2024, Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) stock closed at $52.19 per share with a market capitalization of $4.706 billion.
Ariel Fund stated the following regarding Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Financial advisory and asset manager, Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) also increased in the period following solid top- and bottom-line results. This performance was driven by momentum in the advisory business and improving macro conditions. While the asset management segment continues to experience headwinds, company leadership believes rate cuts should increase demand for more risk-oriented active core strategies and specialty offerings. Notably, LAZ’s long-term growth trajectory remains intact as it aims to increase firm-wide revenue two-fold through double-digit annual revenue growth by 2030. At current levels, we believe LAZ trades at a healthy discount to our private market value estimate.”
A close-up of a graph on a touchscreen, representing the latest investment trends.
Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 22 hedge fund portfolios held Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) at the end of the second quarter which was 23 in the previous quarter. Lazard, Inc.’s (NYSE:LAZ) total firm-wide adjusted net revenue for the first half was $1.4 billion, up 25% from the prior year. While we acknowledge the potential of Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) 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.
Lazard, Inc. (NYSE:LAZ) contributed to the performance of Ariel Small Cap Value Strategy during Q1 2024. 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.