Meridian Funds, managed by ArrowMark Partners, released its “Meridian Hedged Equity Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The significant move by the FED to cut the interest rate helped the market to stabilize. In the quarter, the fund appreciated 6.19% (net), outperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index, which returned 5.89%, and its secondary benchmark, the CBOE S&P 500 Buy/Write Index’s 5.54% return. It anticipates that capital preservation in bear markets will eventually play a significant role in the long-term compounding of returns. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.

Meridian Hedged Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in the Q3 2024 investor letter. Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The one-month return of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) was 23.66%, and its shares gained 336.37% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 27, 2024, Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stock closed at $154.52 per share with a market capitalization of $52.572 billion.

Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company, primarily serving Texas and the Midwest. We own Vistra because we expect power markets to continue tightening as baseload supply declines, coupled with rising demand from data centers, electric vehicles, and manufacturing reshoring. These factors create a favorable pricing environment for Vistra’s generation fleet, especially its nuclear and gas assets. The stock performed well during the period for three key reasons: tightening energy markets and strengthened pricing in forward-year energy contracts, the continuation of Vistra’s aggressive share repurchase program, and the company’s announced plan to acquire the remaining interest in Vistra Vision at an attractive valuation. Additionally, the company reaffirmed its 2024 guidance, indicating that results are trending toward the upper end of the previously projected range. We took advantage of the stock’s strength this quarter to trim our position."

Solar panel workers installing a new farm for clean energy generation.

Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 97 hedge fund portfolios held Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) at the end of the third quarter which was 92 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) 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.