Investment management company Vulcan Value Partners recently released its fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In 2024, the US economy was stronger than expected; the large-cap stocks led the robust U.S. equities markets. Although it is still excessively high, inflation did decrease throughout the course of the year. The largest market cap U.S. Companies performed better than the whole market. Lastly, U.S. stocks outperformed the majority of equities in non-U.S. markets. During Q4 and 2024, Focus and Focus Plus were the best performing strategies while Small Cap was the worst performing. However, all strategies had positive returns for the year. In the quarter, the Large Cap Composite returned -0.1% net of fees and expenses, the Small Cap Composite returned -7.3% net, the Focus Composite returned 6.3% net, the Focus Plus composite returned 7.4% and the All-Cap Composite returned -2.5% net. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
Vulcan Value Partners highlighted stocks like SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) in the fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) is an enterprise real estate technology company. The one-month return of SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) was 0.00%, and its shares lost 51.98% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 17, 2025, SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) stock closed at $1.58 per share with a market capitalization of $304.259 million.
Vulcan Value Partners stated the following regarding SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
"We sold three positions during the quarter: SmartRent Inc., Victoria plc, and Acuity Brands Inc. SmartRent, Inc. (NYSE:SMRT) provides hardware and software that enables apartment owners to offer digital services to renters. The company’s products both reduce costs and increase revenues for apartment owners. The company is a clear leader in the industry with a large unaddressed market, few competitors, and a strong balance sheet. Although we were not pleased with the company’s execution during our time of ownership, they made progress towards their goals. In late July, the founder and CEO resigned leaving the board without a successor in place. Given our previous frustrations with execution and a void in leadership at the company, we determined that SmartRent no longer qualified for investment, and we sold our position. SmartRent was a disappointing investment for us."
A builder wearing a hard hat admiring a newly constructed smart home.