Middle Coast Investing, an investment advisor firm, released its fourth-quarter investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. It was a strong quarter for the strategy which outperformed the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000. However, in full year 2024, the strategy beat the Russell 2000, the most relevant benchmark, but trailed the S&P 500, the most important benchmark. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Middle Coast Investing highlighted stocks like Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO), in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) is a US-based restaurants operator. The one-month return of Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) was -9.09%, and its shares lost 37.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 8, 2025, Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) stock closed at $9.20 per share with a market capitalization of $576.365 million.
Middle Coast Investing stated the following regarding Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“I wrote up Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) briefly in Q3, where I had executed a pair trade with Kura Sus (KRUS), buying Portillo’s shares and selling Kura Sushi short. That trade worked on a short-term basis, and while I unsuccessfully shorted Kura again (see below), I also decided to open a Portillo’s position.
A customer biting into a freshly prepared char-grilled burger, with crinkle-cut French fries and a chopped salad in the background.
Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 12 hedge fund portfolios held Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) at the end of the third quarter which was 16 in the previous quarter. During the Q3, Portillo’s Inc.’s (NASDAQ:PTLO) revenues were $178.3 million reflecting an increase of 6.9% compared Q3 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) 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.
