Tourlite Capital Management, an investment management firm, released its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Tourlite Fund, LP returned 0.4% for Q4 2024 and 14.2% for 2024. Since inception, the fund has annualized returns of 10.2% compared to 11.6% and 4.2% for the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 Indexes. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Tourlite Capital Management emphasized stocks such as FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI). FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) owns and acquires aviation and offshore energy equipment for transportation that operates through Aviation Leasing and Aerospace Products segments. The one-month return of FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) was -8.86%, and its shares gained 84.49% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 6, 2025, FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) stock closed at $108.28 per share with a market capitalization of $11.104 billion.

Tourlite Capital Management stated the following regarding FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) emerged as one of the top-performing stocks in 2024, with its share price increasing over 200%. This performance was driven by robust aerospace after-market tailwinds and the growing market share of its PMA parts business, as the company consistently exceeded market expectations quarter after quarter.

The fourth quarter brought significant developments for FTAI, despite a share price retracement in the last five weeks of the year. In November, the company announced FAA approval for its second PMA engine part. In late December, FTAI announced a Strategic Capital Initiative (SCI) with private credit investors to acquire mid-life aircraft, tapping into a potential $30 billion market as aircraft lessors offload older planes as they make new purchases. Under this arrangement, FTAI secures the rights for the engine maintenance contracts, which are projected to generate ~$200 million in incremental annual aerospace EBITDA by 2026 when fully ramped.

When we analyze the SCI and factor in the multiple revenue streams (management fee, incentive fee and maintenance revenue), we believe the return on invested capital will be 80%+. We calculate a combined ~$2.50 per share of earnings from SCI. If the first SCI deal is successful, FTAI could raise one of these 7-year funds a year."

A team of airline employees surrounded by flight deck controls, with a variety of aircraft outside.

FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 54 hedge fund portfolios held FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 41 in the third quarter. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) ended the year strongly and reported adjusted EBITDA of $252 million in Q4 2024, up 9% from Q3 2024 and up 55% from Q4 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) 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 FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer and analysts like. 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.