Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the “Parnassus Growth Equity Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.  In the third quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 3.29% (net of fees) outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 3.19% gain. Stock selection in the Health Care sector primarily drove the portfolio’s outperformance. Also, overweight position and stock selection in the Financials sector buoyed the gains. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Parnassus Growth Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) provides cloud computing, security, and content delivery services. The one-month return of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) was 11.30%, and its shares lost 15.93% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 10, 2024, Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) stock closed at $98.78 per share with a market capitalization of $14.89 billion.

Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"Also sold during the quarter were Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM in Information Technology and Charter Communications in Communication Services. We lost confidence in Akamai after an unexpected deterioration in its underlying business, notably on the content delivery side. We sold Akamai due to growing concerns about the quality of its content delivery network (CDN) business and management team. We redeployed the capital to CoStar Group, whose stock price has depreciated this year."

A close-up of a person using a laptop with cloud solutions in the background.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 30 hedge fund portfolios held Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) at the end of the third quarter which was 31 in the previous quarter. Akamai Technologies, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AKAM) total revenue for the third quarter was $1.005 billion, up 4% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency. While we acknowledge the potential of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) 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 Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) and shared the list of most undervalued cybersecurity stocks to buy according to hedge funds. 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.