Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, Wedgewood Composite’s net return was 5.8% compared to the Standard & Poor’s 5.9%, the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 3.2%, and the Russell 1000 Value Index’s 9.4% return for the same period. Year to date, the composite returned 22.4% compared to the 22.1%, 24.6%, and 16.7% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Wedgewood Partners highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was -1.77%, and its shares gained 6.87% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 23, 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $564.64 per share with a market capitalization of $521.399 billion.
Wedgewood Partners stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) shares rebounded during the quarter and the holding was a top contributor to portfolio performance. The Company reported double-digit growth in earnings per share during the quarter. It has been able to adjust pricing in its Healthcare segment to keep up with medical cost inflation while working with its Optum units to deliver more value-based care, replacing the traditional fee-for-service health-care model. The Optum segment grew operating income over +15% on strong expense management and continued uptake of value-based care offerings. Value-based care is a sensible, long-term growth opportunity for the Company to pursue and also differentiates them from the vast majority of healthcare providers, particularly as it relates to Medicare patients. For example, the Company’s value-based care programs provide more preventative care opportunities and homebased care visits for patients which helps save the U.S. health-care system billions in unnecessary spending, while also providing patients with better outcomes because diseases and behaviors are caught or corrected at earlier stages. Furthermore, the Company has invested in several core assets over the years in order to execute this value-based strategy. It may well become the standard of care as the proportion of people in the U.S. with healthcare insurance coverage continues to reach new highs.”
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 22nd position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 114 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the second quarter which was 104 in the previous quarter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s (NYSE:UNH) Q3 revenues reached $101 billion, marking a 9% year-over-year increase with strong growth at both Optum and UnitedHealthcare segments. While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) 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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of worst performing Dow stocks on a year-to-date basis along with the current market conditions. 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.