Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned 5.11%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of 5.14%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned 5.14%, compared to an 8.14% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. Following Donald Trump’s election win, optimism surged over deregulation and tax cuts. However, concerns about inflation from proposed tariffs and immigration policies emerged in December, introducing market volatility. Despite this, markets ended 2024 with strong gains, marking one of the best two-year performance stretches in decades. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund emphasized stocks such as Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS). Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products. The one-month return of Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) was -13.15%, and its shares lost 18.72% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 3, 2025, Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) stock closed at $47.55 per share with a market capitalization of $8.833 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) is a leading provider of diagnostic testing and a maker of the non invasive colorectal cancer screening test Cologuard®. Shares struggled in the first half of the year due to investor concerns around competing blood-based tests. However, we remained invested because blood tests, while potentially more convenient, have historically been unable to match the accuracy of stool testing (especially when it comes to detecting early cancers). Furthermore, we had expected growth to improve in the second half of the year as Exact Sciences partnered with hospital networks and payors to meet colon cancer screening targets before year-end. Unfortunately, Cologuard® revenues failed to accelerate, which was attributed to sales execution issues. Given the large addressable market, we have been disappointed that the company has required flawless sales execution to drive significant growth. Given these challenges and the competitive noise, we reduced the position.”
A research team in a laboratory discussing the results of a lab screening test for biomarkers.
Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 49 hedge fund portfolios held Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 41 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) 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 Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) and shared the list of cash-rich mid cap stocks to buy. Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) contributed to Artisan Mid Cap Fund’s performance in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.