Optimist Fund, an investment management company, released its third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund appreciated approximately 28% in the third quarter, fueled by strong fundamental performance across its holdings. Over the first five years, the fund generated an annualized return of 11.5%, net of fees. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Optimist Fund highlighted stocks like Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) offers an enterprise platform to plan, capture, manage, automate, and report on work for teams and organizations. The one-month return of Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) was 0.29%, and its shares gained 20.42% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 13, 2024, Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) stock closed at $56.02 per share with a market capitalization of $7.843 billion.

Optimist Fund stated the following regarding Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"On the less positive front, Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR), a previous top 10 holding, was acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. I am disappointed with the price it was sold for, as I believed its growth was set to accelerate and the stock is near a trough valuation multiple. Although I’m disappointed with the end result, Smartsheet was a profitable investment for Optimist Fund."

An executive in suit presenting a large touch screen of the company's cloud-based enterprise platform.

Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 61 hedge fund portfolios held Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) at the end of the third quarter which was 57 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) 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 Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE:SMAR) and shared TimesSquare Capital U.S. Mid Cap Growth Strategy's views on the company. 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.