Investment advisory firm Ithaka Group released the “Ithaka US Growth Strategy” third-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The market continued to rise, which began in late October 2023, and gained across multiple asset classes. However, the portfolio underperformed in this up-market, increasing 0.4% (gross of fees) compared to the R1000G, which increased by 3.2%. Stock selection drove the portfolio to underperform in the quarter, with a negligible tailwind from sector allocation. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Ithaka US Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) offers intelligent workflow automation solutions for digital businesses. The one-month return of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) was 7.90%, and its shares gained 60.07% of their value over the last 52 weeks.  On October 30, 2024, ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) stock closed at $950.00 per share with a market capitalization of $196.001 billion.

Ithaka US Growth Strategy stated the following regarding ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"Founded in 2004, ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) has become the leading provider of cloud-based software solutions that define, structure, manage and automate workflow services for global enterprises. ServiceNow pioneered the use of the cloud to deliver IT service management (“ITSM”) applications. These applications allow users to manage incidents and to plan new IT projects, provision clouds, manage application performance and build applications themselves. The company has since expanded beyond the ITSM market to provide workflow solutions for IT operations management, customer support, human resources, security operations and other enterprise departments where a patchwork of semi-automated processes have been used with varying success in the past. ServiceNow’s stock appreciated in the quarter on the back of strong earnings that beat Street estimates on the top and bottom line, with the company pointing to strength in subscription revenues, cRPO, operating margins, and continued demand for the company’s AI products."

A businesswoman signing an online document using a cloud-faxing solution.

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 97 hedge fund portfolios held ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) at the end of the second quarter which was 90 in the previous quarter. In Q3 2024, ServiceNow, Inc.'s (NYSE:NOW) subscription revenue increased 22.5% year-over-year to $2.715 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) 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.