Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Select Equity Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Its Investor Class: ARTNX returned 10.86%, Advisor Class: APDNX returned 10.85%, and Institutional Class: APHNX returned 10.91% compared to a 10.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. The US market recorded gains in a quarter that nearly equated to a full year. Almost all the markets around the world did well in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Select Equity Fund highlighted stocks like American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is an integrated payments company. The one-month return of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was -3.97%, and its shares gained 35.49% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 7, 2024, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) stock closed at $232.67 per share with a market capitalization of $167.36 billion.
Artisan Select Equity Fund stated the following regarding American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shares rose 22% this quarter. This is an interesting case study given our earlier discussion about inflation. American Express operates one of the largest credit card networks in the world. Its revenue is largely a function of a fee rate applied to the dollar value of goods and services that are transacted through its network. That dollar value is, of course, nominal. As inflation pushes up the value of those goods and services as it has for the past few years, American Express will capture that value through its fee structure. The past few years inflation has clearly been a benefit. Aside from its inherent inflation protection, the business is a very strong one. Payments continue to shift toward electronic forms, benefiting American Express. It also has a strong brand that attracts loyal and highly profitable customers that are the envy of the industry. Recent results have been strong with revenues moving nicely ahead of GDP.”
A close-up view of a payment terminal, capturing the sophistication of a payment network.
American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 66 hedge fund portfolios held American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) at the end of the first quarter which was 64 in the previous quarter. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) started the year strong, with Q1 revenue rising 11% YoY to $15.8 billion and EPS growing 39% to $3.33. Strong spending contributed to double-digit revenue growth. While we acknowledge the potential of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) 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 American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) and shared the list of best digital payments stocks to buy. 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.
