ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Value Strategy” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the strategy outperformed its Russell 1000 Value benchmark. The strong contributions from financials and energy holdings overcame detractors in consumer staples. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

ClearBridge Value Strategy highlighted stocks like Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) is a food and beverage company that offers baby foods, bottled water, cereals and chocolate and confectionery products. The one-month return of Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) was -2.54%, and its shares lost 29.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 10, 2025, Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) stock closed at $80.65 per share with a market capitalization of $208.747 billion.

ClearBridge Value Strategy stated the following regarding Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

"Conversely, stock selection in the consumer staples sector weighed on overall performance, where Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY), a Swiss-based food and beverage company, retreated after it reported a decline in total sales and guided down guidance for its full-year sales growth and margins, citing a softer consumer demand environment globally."

A filled shopping cart with popular food and beverage items.

Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 4 hedge fund portfolios held Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) at the end of the third quarter which was 4 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Nestlé S.A. (OTC:NSRGY) 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.

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.