Appalaches Capital, an investment management firm, released its third-quarter 2024, investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Appalaches Core LO ended the quarter with a 3.0% gain after all fees and expenses compared to the S&P 500’s return of 5.9%, the equal-weighted S&P 500’s return of 9.6%, and the SOFR Index return of 1.4%. The fund has achieved a net return of 7.1%, year-to-date. During the quarter, the firm made several changes to the portfolio, with about two-thirds now allocated to risk assets, aligning better with a normalized allocation, and planning to invest idle cash as opportunities arise in companies with strong competitive positions. The firm aims to buy shares at a discount to their intrinsic value, but this has been more challenging over the past year. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Appalaches Capital highlighted stocks like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q3 2024 investor letter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was 1.44%, and its shares gained 32.53% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 29, 2024, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $170.49 per share with a market capitalization of $2.11 trillion.
Appalaches Capital stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has also quickly lost its appeal amongst investors, with many concerned about the potential of diminishing returns from current capital expenditures. This is a fair concern, and one that I have weighed heavily, but the business is still far from being expensive and returns on incremental capital have so far remained resilient. Potential anti-trust actions have also weighed on the stock as of late, although a breakup of the business may actually be a favorable outcome for investors as the sum of the parts value is realized.”
A laptop and phone open to Google’s services in an everyday setting.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in 7th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 160 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the third quarter which was 165 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) 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 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and shared the list of trending AI stocks to watch in December. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) detracted from Parnassus Core Equity Fund’s performance in Q3 2024 due to regulatory proceedings for alleged anticompetitive practices in its search business. 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.