Aristotle Capital Boston, LLC, an investment advisor, released its “Small Cap Equity Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The volatility that was seen in 2024 persisted into the fourth quarter. From style perspective, value companies underperformed their growth counterparts during the quarter, with the Russell 2000 Value Index returning -1.06% while the Russell 2000 Growth Index returned 1.70%. In the fourth quarter, the strategy delivered a return of -0.46% net of fees (-0.31% gross of fees) underperforming the Russell 2000 Index’s 0.33% total return. Security selection drove the underperformance of the strategy in the quarter. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.

Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) is a vertically integrated construction materials company. The one-month return of Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) was 3.35%, and its shares gained 43.62% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 17, 2025, Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) stock closed at $52.19 per share with a market capitalization of $9.176 billion.

Aristotle Small Cap Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM), a North American supplier of aggregates, cement, and ready-mix concrete for the construction industry, announced in November a definitive agreement to be acquired by Quikrete Holdings, Inc. totaling approximately $11.5 billion, including debt at a 30% premium with an expected close date within the first quarter of 2025."

A construction site featuring a large concrete foundation poured by the cement manufacturing company.

Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 23 hedge fund portfolios held Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) at the end of the third quarter which was 24 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) 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 Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE:SUM) and shared the list of best cement and construction materials stocks to buy now in detail. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.