Conestoga Capital Advisors, an asset management company, released its third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. At its September meeting, the Federal Reserve lowered the Federal Funds rate by 50 basis points due to weaker employment growth and moderate inflation. Equity markets welcomed the news, raising optimism for a soft landing in the U.S. economy. On September 26th, the S&P 500 Index achieved a record high, the Russell 2000 Index also moved higher over the quarter but remains roughly 10% below its all-time high. The Conestoga Small Cap Composite surged 10.09% (net) in the third quarter outperforming the Russell 2000 Growth Index’s 8.41% return. The Conestoga SMid Cap Composite returned 12.94% (net) versus the Russell 2500 Growth Index’s 6.99% return. The Conestoga Micro Cap Composite advanced 7.60% (net) but trailed the Russell Microcap Growth Index’s return of 8.57%. Finally, the Conestoga Mid Cap Composite returned 8.36% (net) outperforming the Russell Midcap Growth Index’s 6.54%. Please check the top 5 holdings of the fund for a better understanding of their best picks for 2024.
Conestoga Capital Advisors highlighted stocks like Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information to automate manufacturing and distribution tasks. The one-month return of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) was -0.63%, and its shares gained 9.89% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 21, 2024, Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) stock closed at $39.63 per share with a market capitalization of $6.75 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX): Leading provider of machine vision solutions used in factories and warehouses to measure, inspect and identify items to ensure accuracy. Revenue has been challenged as its largely dependent on customers’ capital spending. The stock rallied strongly through the spring in anticipation of Federal Reserve monetary easing, however it gave back all of the gains by selling off 20% following a disappointing second quarter update which include very soft third quarter guidance.”
A worker utilizing a vision sensor to verify discrete items.
Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) at the end of the second quarter which was 32 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) 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 Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) and shared the list of trending AI stocks on latest news and analyst ratings. 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.