Investment management company First Pacific Advisors recently released its “FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund returned 2.38% compared to a -1.06 % return for the Russell 2000 Value Index. For the full year, the fund returned 10.76% compared to an 8.05% return for the index. The firm’s focus is on long-term performance, aiming to outperform the Russell 2000 Value Index with less risk throughout the entire market cycle. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund emphasized stocks such as Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA). Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) develops, markets, and sells semiconductor products. The one-month return of Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) was -14.98%, and its shares lost 41.10% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 5, 2025, Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) stock closed at $63.61 per share with a market capitalization of $2.493 billion.

FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) designs and sells a collection of chip designs and technologies around wireless networking, data processing, and video/audio compression. The company is also the leader in chips that facilitate touchscreens in consumer devices and cars. After losing its contract for the iPhone display driver in 2018, SYNA has been re-orienting its business toward internet of things (IoT) – allowing edge and peripheral devices to quickly and efficiently process and send data. SYNA has concurrently been hit by the large cyclical slowdown and de-stocking in the semi-conductor industry that caused June 2024’s fiscal year revenue to fall 29% while EPS fell 72%. We are cautiously optimistic regarding Synaptics’ technology and a cyclical rebound and have continued to hold our shares."

A technician inspecting a newly-manufactured semiconductor product.

Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 27 hedge fund portfolios held Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 23 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) 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 Synaptics Incorporated (NASDAQ:SYNA) and shared the list of AI stocks making headlines. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.