Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its “Artisan Value Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 4.48% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTLX, 4.55% by its Advisor Class: APDLX, and 4.54% was gained by its Institutional Class: APHLX for the fourth quarter of 2021, all below the Russell 1000® Value Index that delivered a 7.77% return, and the Russell 1000® Index that gained 9.78% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Artisan Value Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) and discussed its stance on the firm. CME Group Inc. is a Chicago, Illinois-based foreign exchange company with an $86.0 billion market capitalization. CME delivered a 4.79% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 19.88%. The stock closed at $239.41 per share on February 25, 2022.
Here is what Artisan Value Fund has to say about CME Group Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Turning to the positive, we had several strong performers. Though we discuss just a few holdings in depth in this investor letter, positive contributions came from a variety of stocks as there were 11 holdings with total returns of 10%+ in Q4. Among these was CME Group. CME, a derivatives exchange operator, stands to meaningfully benefit from interest rate volatility as market participants price in changing rates of inflation and the Federal Reserve’s response, including tapering and potential rate hikes. With steady growth in the outstanding “raw material” of US Treasury securities and other fixed income instruments as far as the eye can see, the underlying need for managing interest rate exposure continues to grow. CME also benefits from price volatility across the agricultural and industrial commodities complex. Our long-term investment case is predicated on the company’s wide moat and high margins in its secularly growing derivatives business. Unlike trading of common stocks, futures and options transactions are unique to single venues, making exchanges small monopolies having strong business economics. CME has a clean balance sheet and a shareholder-friendly policy of returning all excess cash flow to shareholders via regular and special dividends. These dividends are currently smaller than normal as CME Group is under-earning in the current low interest rate environment.”
Source: pexels
Our calculations show that CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. CME was in 55 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 64 funds in the previous quarter. CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) delivered a 7.76% return in the past 3 months.
In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on CME in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
