Natera (NTRA) Raised Initial 2024 Guidance in Q1

Fred Alger Management, an investment management company, released its “Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US markets performed strongly in Q1, with the S&P Index up 10.56%. Investor confidence rose with the anticipated soft landing of the market. However, Class A shares of the fund underperformed the Russell 2500 Growth Index in the quarter. Communication services and real estate sectors boosted the relative performance while information technology and industrials weighed down. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.

Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund highlighted stocks like Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a diagnostics company. Natera, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:NTRA) one-month return (NASDAQ:PI) was 9.85%, and its shares gained 118.25% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 31, 2024, Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) stock closed at $106.56 per share with a market capitalization of $13.086 billion.

Alger Weatherbie Specialized Growth Fund stated the following regarding Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is a specialty lab providing genetic testing services in the reproductive health, oncology and transplant markets. Reproductive health tests are run to screen for common genetic disorders such as trisomy 13, 18. and 21 in pregnant women- these tests are also known as non-invasive prenatal testing. (NIPT). The company's oncology franchise is led by Signatera, a test used to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) - the applications of this test are primarily to monitor therapy response and detect cancer recurrence. Lastly, Natera's transplant franchise is led by Prospera, a test used to monitor transplant organ rejection Natera's tests are all based on the company's proprietary liquid biopsy platform to detect cell-free DNA. During the quarter, shares contributed to performance as the company reported strong fiscal fourth quarter results where revenues and profit margins came in above analyst estimates. Better-than-expected revenues stemmed from higher test reimbursement rates and strong execution across the portfolio. notably in the Signatera oncology segment. The company also reported gross margin improvement, with management projecting an accelerated timeline for reaching cash flow breakeven by the second half of 2024 Consequently, management raised their initial 2024 revenue and gross margin guidance to higher-than-expected levels."

A laboratory environment with technicians in lab coats conducting molecular testing services.

Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 58 hedge fund portfolios held Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) at the end of the first quarter which was 50 in the previous quarter.

Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) announced strong first quarter, revenues, up 52% from Q1 of last year and up 18% sequentially from Q4 2023, fueled by record volume growth and rising ASPs.

In another article, we discussed Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) and shared Cathie Wood Stocks Insiders are Selling. Baron Health Care Fund commented about Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in its first quarter investor letter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 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.