ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Growth Strategy” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Signs of inflation cooling, and an ambitious Federal Reserve rate-cutting cycle led to broad equity market gains in Q3, primarily driven by smaller capitalization companies. In the quarter value shares outperformed with the Russell Midcap Value increasing 10.08% compared to the Russell Midcap Growth Index’s 6.54% gain. Against this backdrop, the strategy underperformed the Russell Midcap Growth Index benchmark. Idiosyncratic headwinds across a few of the Strategy’s holdings hindered performance. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Founded in 1997, Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is an alternative asset manager. The one-month return of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) was 8.43%, and its shares gained 38.01% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 8, 2024, Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) stock closed at $153.38 per share with a market capitalization of $48.007 billion.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“We took action in the quarter to shore up our financials exposure with two new buys in the sector. Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is an alternative asset manager and leading player in private credit, a large and growing market that continues to be supported by secular tailwinds such as increased bank regulation, rising retail penetration and the migration of insurance assets. With its scale, Ares should take outsize share of industry asset growth and drive fee-related earnings and margin expansion over time. The company’s high underwriting standards and performance in past downturns position it well to not only manage through a future credit cycle but also emerge stronger versus peers.”
A close up of a senior financial advisor reviewing a portfolio and making recommendations for an investor.
Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) at the end of the second quarter which was 38 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) 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 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.