Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management company, released its “Large Cap Concentrated Fund” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Q4 saw an uneven increase in markets, capping off yet another strong year for the markets. Stocks broadly increased after the US election, but some gave up most or all of those gains before the end of the year. Against this backdrop, the portfolio trailed the Russell 1000 Index in Q4 and for the full year. The fund returned -2.00% (net) in Q4 vs 2.75% for the index. For the full year, the fund returned 14.24% compared to 24.51% for the index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Diamond Hill Large Cap Concentrated Fund emphasized stocks such as Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM). Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) is a waste management company that offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials. The one-month return of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) was -1.26%, and its shares gained 6.23% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 14, 2025, Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) stock closed at $224.86 per share with a market capitalization of $90.42 billion.

Diamond Hill Large Cap Concentrated Fund stated the following regarding Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"As valuations have continued rising and the economic cycle has gotten relatively long in the tooth, we’ve thought carefully about where and how we are exposed to more cyclical stocks. As such, we initiated just three new positions in Q4: Berkshire Hathaway, Aon and Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM).

Waste Management is one of the US’s largest providers of waste-collection services. Its leading footprint of landfill assets provides the company with long-term pricing power. Further, Waste Management has invested heavily in recent years in recycling and renewable natural gas projects — which we believe the market is underappreciating given the value these investments will create as the projects wind down and come online."

Aerial view of a Waste Management Transfer Station, highlighting the scale of its operations.

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 67 hedge fund portfolios held Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 54 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) 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 Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) and shared the list of best stocks to buy according to Bill Gates. 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.