Palm Valley Capital Management, an investment management firm, released the “Palm Valley Capital Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, Palm Valley Capital Fund increased 2.43% compared to a 10.13% and 8.48% return for the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the Morningstar Small Cap Index, respectively. During the quarter the equity positions in the Fund increased by 8.32% slightly below small-cap benchmarks. Cash equivalents comprised 81.5% of the fund’s assets at the period’s end. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Palm Valley Capital Fund highlighted stocks like TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) is a specialized workforce solutions provider. The one-month return of TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) was -0.41%, and its shares lost 50.07% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 3, 2024, TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) stock closed at $7.43 per share with a market capitalization of $221.615 million.

Palm Valley Capital Fund stated the following regarding TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"The Fund’s top decliners during the third quarter were TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) and Resources Connection (ticker: RGP). Our staffing holdings have suffered as the weak demand for temporary labor is spreading to permanent jobs, further eroding investor sentiment on the industry. Strong payroll numbers reported by the government over the past eighteen months were inflated and have been revised lower. We believe a convergence in demand between temporary and permanent jobs is necessary before the staffing industry can begin to heal. Job openings are now below the pre-pandemic trend and are worse in the private sector, since government job openings have outperformed.

A busy industrial worker in their uniform operating machinery in a factory setting.

TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 19 hedge fund portfolios held TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) at the end of the second quarter which was 20 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of TrueBlue, Inc. (NYSE:TBI) 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.