Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy” third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The third quarter had a strong finish for U.S. small-cap equities, driven by interest rate reductions and fading recessionary concerns. In the third quarter, the fund delivered 7.65% gross, and 7.35% net of fees compared to an 8.41% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.

Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) in its Q3 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) is a software company that provides cloud-based human capital management and payroll software solutions. The one-month return of Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) was 15.36%, and its shares gained 29.88% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 15, 2024, Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) stock closed at $197.79 per share with a market capitalization of $11.026 billion.

Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"During the quarter, we instituted six new additions and five complete sales. We also added to and trimmed several existing positions. Additions included NV5 Global, Rambus, Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY), Insight Enterprises, elf Beauty, and Dutch Bros.

A business operations manager, looking over the expense management system that helps simplifies the financials for the company.

Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 36 hedge fund portfolios held Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) at the end of the second quarter which was 25 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) 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 Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTY) and shared Piper Sandler’s top technical stock picks and the top stocks. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.