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 Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) offers software and cloud solutions for simulation, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. The one-month return of Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) was 9.64%, and its shares gained 68.43% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 21, 2024, Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) stock closed at $95.18 per share with a market capitalization of $8.701 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR), a leader in design and simulation software, was a leader in two of the past three quarters before declining modestly in the third quarter. ALTR is seeing strong demand across many verticals, notably in aerospace, defense, and automotive. ALTR also benefited from some disruption in the electronics simulation market caused by Synopsys’ acquisition of Ansys. In the second quarter, ALTR grew revenue and earnings in the mid- to high-single digits.”
A computer programmer developing a software application for high-performance computing.
Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 12 hedge fund portfolios held Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) at the end of the second quarter which was 21 in the previous quarter. The total revenue of Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) in the second quarter was $148.8 million, represents a 5.4% year-over year increase. While we acknowledge the potential of Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) 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 Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) and shared Conestoga Capital Advisors’ views on the company in the previous quarter. 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.