Weitz Investment Management, an investment management firm, released its “Partners III Opportunity Fund” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund’s Institutional Class returned +1.21% in the fourth quarter bringing the yearly returns to +16.25 compared to +2.63% and +23.8 returns for the Russell 3000 for both the periods. The firm started 2024 with modest expectations, but the year saw a double-digit gain for the Fund. The benchmark outperformed, fueled by strong investor interest in Artificial Intelligence and gains from mega-cap tech companies. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Weitz Partners III Opportunity Fund emphasized stocks such as Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH). Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH), with a market capitalization of $9.68 billion, develops, manufactures, and sells life science reagents, instruments, and services for the research and clinical diagnostic markets. The one-month return of Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) was -16.75%, and its shares lost 17.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 27, 2025, Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) stock closed at $61.23 per share.

Weitz Partners III Opportunity Fund stated the following regarding Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"We also added additional exposure to the life sciences industry, purchasing additional Danaher shares and adding Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) to the portfolio. Bio-Techne is a leading supplier of proteins, antibodies and other equipment and consumables to a wide swath of life sciences end markets. Bio-Techne and Danaher (and Thermo Fischer, too) are caught in an elongated industry downturn but we believe maintain long term healthy prospects and positive prognoses."

A molecular biologist, carefully studying the reagents under a microscope.

Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 24 hedge fund portfolios held Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 25 in the third quarter. In the second quarter of fiscal 2025, the company generated $297 million in revenues, up 9% year-over-year on both reported and organic basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) 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 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.