River Road Asset Management, an investment management company released its “River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund” Q4 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, AMG River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund returned 0.43% compared to (1.98%) return for the Russell 1000® Value Index. For the year 2024, the fund returned 24.59% significantly outperforming Index return of 14.37%. Stocks rallied in November after a Republican victory but declined sharply following hawkish Fed comments. Shorter duration stocks, including small caps and value, lost most of their post-election gains by the end of December. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund emphasized stocks such as Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX). Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) is a medical technology company that develops and manufactures medical supplies, devices, laboratory equipment, and diagnostic products. The one-month return of Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) was 1.41%, and its shares lost 7.57% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 27, 2025, Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) stock closed at $228.71 per share with a market capitalization of $65.671 billion.

River Road Large Cap Value Select Fund stated the following regarding Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"As of December 31, the portfolio held 29 positions, up four positions from Q3. During Q4, the largest sector increase was 736 bps within industrials, while the largest decrease was -276 bps within consumer discretionary. We established five new positions and eliminated one position

Another new position in Q4 was Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) (BDX, 2.5 conviction), a globally diversified medical technology leader, commanding dominant market positions across its product portfolios. The company’s strategic focus on non-cyclical, highly recurring revenue streams and high growth markets, including robotics, life sciences, and biologics, may position it favorably within the health care sector. BDX underperformed along with most health care stocks in 2024. While the company’s leverage ratio of 3x is relatively elevated, we believe this is mitigated by several factors: high diversity of revenue with only one product contributing more than 1% of total sales, consistent free cash flow generation, and a resilient model focused on essential medical technologies. BDX’s commitment to shareholder returns is evidenced by its impressive 53-year track record of consecutive dividend increases, underscoring the company’s financial stability and management’s confidence in long-term cash flow generation. The company’s current enterprise value (EV)/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) multiple is the lowest it has been since 2018 while the Russell 1000® Value multiple is 15% higher."

A surgeon performing a procedure in an operating room using a medical device supplied by the company.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 56 hedge fund portfolios held Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 52 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) 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.

We covered Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) in another article, where we shared Oakmark Global Fund's views on the company. 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.