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 HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) is a company that designs and manufactures aerospace, defense, and electronic-related products and services. The one-month return of HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) was -2.22%, and its shares gained 60.42% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 22, 2024, HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) stock closed at $255.47 per share with a market capitalization of $30.643 billion.
Conestoga Capital Advisors stated the following regarding HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI): Commercial and military aircraft aftermarket parts company which designs, manufactures, repairs and distributes jet engine and aircraft component replacement parts. The company has benefitted from solid travel growth as well as healthy parts and maintenance spending due to the delayed retirement of older aircraft given production issues at Boeing (BA).”
A row of commercial airplanes on a runway, their engines running and ready for takeoff.
HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 53 hedge fund portfolios held HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) at the end of the second quarter which was 52 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) 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 HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) and shared the list of most profitable industrial stocks to invest in. 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.