Hotchkis & Wiley, an investment management company, released its “Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Fundamental Value Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Fundamental Value Fund returned - 0.91% in the fourth quarter, outperforming the Russell 1000 Value Index’s -1.98% return. However, for the full year, the portfolio underperformed the index returning 12.81% vs. 14.37% for the index. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Fundamental Value Fund emphasized stocks such as Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC). Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is a diversified financial services company. The one-month return Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was -8.23%, and its shares gained 22.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 28, 2025, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) stock closed at $70.69 per share with a market capitalization of $230.814 billion.

Hotchkis & Wiley Large Cap Fundamental Value Fund stated the following regarding Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is one of the nation’s largest depositories and banks by assets. In addition to having a very high market share of deposits, they also enjoy high market share within the geographies they operate in such as western and southeastern US. In our opinion, WFC is one of the best franchises in banking with a history of very high returns on assets and equity. Performance over the quarter was strong due to potential deregulation with the onboarding of a new presidential regime and speculation that the company’s asset cap could be lifted as early as 1H25."

A team of bankers in suits, discussing the success of the company's banking products.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 96 hedge fund portfolios held Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 72 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) 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.

We covered Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in another article, where we shared the list of best financial stocks to buy according to billionaires. 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.