Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTQX returned -5.37%, Advisor Class fund APDQX posted a return of -5.34%, and Institutional Class fund APHQX returned -5.28, compared to a -3.40% return for the Russell Midcap Value Index. Markets contracted in Q2 after widespread market participation drove US stocks upward in late 2023 and early 2024, with a few mega-cap technology names pushing the S&P 500 Index to all-time highs. Healthcare and consumer discretionary holdings held back the portfolio’s performance relative to the index. Financials, industrials, and technology holdings outperformed on the positive side. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) develops and provides healthcare products. The one-month return of Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) was 7.80%, and its shares lost 14.10% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 6, 2024, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) stock closed at $36.92 per share with a market capitalization of $18.836 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“In the health care and consumer discretionary sectors, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) and LKQ were key detractors. Baxter provides essential products in renal care, medication delivery, advanced surgery, clinical nutrition, pharma and acute therapies. Though quarterly results beat expectations and the company raised guidance, shares were down because some of the upside to results was in the renal care business, which is being sold to Carlyle Group, whereas there was weakness in its healthcare services and technologies business—the legacy Hillrom business that it acquired in 2021. Baxter has sought to transform the company by selling several non-core operations, which will raise cash and simplify the business longer term as it focuses on profitable growth. Last year, it sold its BioPharma Solutions business at a significant premium, and this year it is exiting the kidney business. Given the company’s growth challenges over the past few years, patience among investors seems to be lacking. In our view, there is significant pessimism embedded in the stock price as it sells cheaply based on our sum-of-the-parts valuation analysis.”
Patients connected to dialysis machines in a hospital ward, highlighting the company’s dialysis and intravenous therapies.
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 46 hedge fund portfolios held Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) at the end of the first quarter which was 44 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) reported global sales of $3.6 billion, up increased 2% on a reported basis and 3% on a constant currency basis from Q1 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) 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.
In another article, we discussed Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) and shared the list of best healthcare stocks to buy under $50. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
