Ensemble Capital Management, an investment management company, released its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund saw exceptionally excellent absolute and relative performance in the fourth quarter. The fund was up 16.00% in the quarter while the S&P 500 appreciated 11.69%. The fund was up 21.75% for the full year vs the S&P 500 up 26.29%. The fund’s underperformance was due to its investment in First Republic, which the fund exited in March. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Ensemble Capital Management featured stocks such as Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is a life science tools and integrated systems manufacturer. On January 17, 2024, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) stock closed at $133.56 per share. One-month return of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) was -4.76%, and its shares lost 31.99% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) has a market capitalization of $21.209 billion.
Ensemble Capital Management stated the following regarding Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) (3.56% weight in the Fund): Illumina has long deployed AI powered software in genetic research. Earlier this year, the company announced a new AI algorithm that predicts whether a given genetic mutation will cause disease. The new tool will be integrated into customer facing software solutions. While ChatGPT has been trained on human language, Illumina’s PrimateAI[1]3D program was trained on genome sequences. The resulting output from the program can help identify patients who have low frequency variants that put them at risk for various diseases.
The potential for AI in genetic research is huge. In fact, genetic research has been identified by Nvida’s CEO Jensen Huang as one of the biggest areas of potential for AI. AI is particularly good at sorting through massive amounts of data to identify patterns and this simple concept is at the heart of genetic research.”
A scientist performing a blood test on a patient using life sciences tools & services.
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is not our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) at the end of third quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in another article and shared the list of best genomics stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 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.
