Mairs & Power, an investment advisor, released the “Mairs & Power Small Cap” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Non-technology equities were the market leaders in the first quarter, but mega-cap technology companies made a strong comeback in the second quarter. The market expanded again in the most recent quarter as interest-rate and economically sensitive areas like Utilities, Industrials, and small-cap stocks outperformed. Year-to-date the fund is up 8.95% slightly underperforming the 9.33% return for the S&P Small Cap 600 Total Return (TR) benchmark and the 10.90% return for its peer group, the Morningstar U.S. Fund Small Blend. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Mairs & Power Small Cap Strategy highlighted stocks like Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) operates convenience stores under the Casey’s and Casey’s General Store names. The one-month return of Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) was 7.07%, and its shares gained 52.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 25, 2024, Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) stock closed at $426.69 per share with a market capitalization of $15.532 billion.
Mairs & Power Small Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“The largest contributions to Fund relative performance during the period included was Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY), a convenience store operator that is gaining market share in part by leveraging data to drive market share gains and structurally higher margins in their business.”
A close-up of a hand selecting a food or beverage item from a store shelf.
Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) at the end of the third quarter which was 36 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) 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 Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) and shared the list of best grocery 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.