Should You Consider Adding Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)?

River Road Asset Management, an investment management company released its “River Road Small-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 3.67% compared to -0.26% returns for the Russell 2500TM Value Index. For the year 2024, the fund returned 12.46% compared to the Index return of 10.98%. 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 Small-Mid Cap Value Fund emphasized stocks such as Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII). Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) is a US-based company that designs, builds, overhauls, and repairs military ships. The one-month return Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) was 3.51%, and its shares lost 30.03% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 1, 2025, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) stock closed at $202.20 per share with a market capitalization of $7.858 billion.

River Road Small-Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“The largest new position added during the quarter was Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HII). Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilder with two main shipyards including Ingalls and Newport News. HII develops and constructs nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers at its Newport News yard, while constructing surface combatants and amphibious assault ships at its Ingalls yard. Additionally, HII provides professional services including next generation IT consulting to government agencies and maintenance services (e.g. refueling) to military ships. HII spun off from Northrop Grumman (NOC) in 2011, however, the shipyards have been operating for more than 80 years. HII is based in Newport News, VA. Christopher Kastner (61) has been president and CEO since 2022 after serving as chief financial officer since 2016.