River Road Asset Management, an investment management company released its “River Road Mid Cap Value Fund” Q4 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, AMG River Road Small Cap Value Fund (Class N) returned 2.97% compared to -1.75% returns for the Russell MidCap Value Index. For the year 2024, the fund returned 13.56%, compared to Index return of 13.07%. Stocks rallied in November after a Republican victory but declined sharply following hawkish Fed comments. Shorter duration stocks, including small caps and value, lost most of their post-election gains by the end of December. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2024, please check its top five holdings.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, River Road Mid Cap Value Fund emphasized stocks such as The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE). The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) is a real estate development, asset management, and operating company. The one-month return of The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) was -0.98%, and its shares lost 19.06% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 1, 2025, The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) stock closed at $46.55 per share with a market capitalization of $2.715 billion.
River Road Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Another poor performer was The St. Joe Company (NYSE:JOE), the largest private landowner in Florida with 171,000 acres in Northwest Florida with legal rights to develop over 170,000 residential units in Florida’s Bay County and Walton County (the sixth-fastest growing county in the U.S.). JOE operates independently of Wall Street, with no sell-side coverage due to its unique business model of slow and steady land development that defies precise modeling. The company’s long-term growth strategy capitalizes on retiring Baby Boomers migrating to Florida, driving both revenue and profit growth at attractive rates. The company’s strategy involves converting highly valuable land (recorded at 1936 prices on the balance sheet) into recurring cash flows through various commercial real estate developments including hotels, apartments, retail, and entertainment assets.