Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its “Carillon Eagle Small Cap Growth Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. After experiencing losses in the second quarter, small-cap stocks notably increased in the third quarter. The Russell 2000 Growth Index (up 8.41%) underperformed the Russell 2000 Value Index (up 10.11%). In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Carillon Eagle Small Cap Growth Fund highlighted stocks like E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is a beauty company that offers cosmetic and skin care products—the one-month return of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) was 9.73%, and its shares gained 5.16% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 26, 2024, E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) stock closed at $124.29 per share with a market capitalization of $7.001 billion.

Carillon Eagle Small Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is a multi-brand beauty company that offers cosmetics and skin care products at accessible prices. The stock’s performance was weighed down by guidance that showed more slowing in the business than expected. The company’s business is contending with the high benchmark set by the past year’s large gains in revenue growth compared with a deceleration in its growth rate this year, exerting downward pressure on the multiple."

A close up of the lip and eye products from the company on a model in a fashion and beauty shoot.

E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) at the end of the third quarter which was 40 in the previous quarter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc.’s (NYSE:ELF) revenue grew 40% year-over-year in the fiscal second quarter of 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) 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 E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) and shared Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy's views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.