Middle Coast Investing, an investment advisor firm, released its fourth-quarter investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. It was a strong quarter for the strategy which outperformed the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000. However, in full year 2024, the strategy beat the Russell 2000, the most relevant benchmark, but trailed the S&P 500, the most important benchmark. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Middle Coast Investing highlighted stocks like Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) in the Q4 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is an online travel company. The one-month return of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) was 8.80%, and its shares lost 25.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 8, 2025, Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) stock closed at $15.08 per share with a market capitalization of $2.101 billion.

Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"Travel is my favorite sector to study, and has paid off for us over the years. Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) always seemed like a value trap to me. An old-world web company, a Web 2.0 model from a more open era. The business is reliant on user generated reviews of hotels and restaurants and travel destinations. TripAdvisor then funnels readers of those reviews to the hotel sites or online travel agencies like Booking.com to book hotels. It is a middleman, dependent on Google’s algorithms and winning against very tough competition. TripAdvisor is useful as a site, but seemed stuck as a business.

It also has owned Viator, an online travel agency for finding tours, since 201 Viator has been what has seduced investors for a long time. It has been faster growing, is a leader in its sector, and is focused on ‘experiences’ – tours, activities, events –one of the last sectors of travel to truly go online. GetYourGuide, a top but likely smaller competitor, earned a $2B valuation in 2023. (TripAdvisor also owns The Fork, a restaurant reservation service, which is a fine, tiny business relative the main story)..." (Click here to read the full text)

A family boarding an airplane with their suitcases, symbolic of the company's reach into the global travel industry.

Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) at the end of the third quarter which was 37 in the previous quarter. Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) generated 532 million in revenues in the third quarter, which was flat compared to Q3 2023 and in line with expectations. While we acknowledge the potential of Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) 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 Tripadvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) and shared the list of best travel stocks to buy. 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.