Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Global Equity Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The expectation of rate reduction later this year and slowing inflation boosted global markets in Q1. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class ARTHX returned 12.67 %, Advisor Class APDHX posted a return of 12.67%, and Institutional Class APHHX returned 12.72%, compared to an 8.20% return for the MSCI All Country World Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Global Equity Fund highlighted stocks like PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP), in the Q1 2024 investor letter. PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) manufactures, markets, and distributes various beverages and convenient foods. The one-month return of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) was -5.93%, and its shares lost 11.86% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 2, 2024, PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) stock closed at $163.58 per share with a market capitalization of $224.888 billion.
Artisan Global Equity Fund stated the following regarding PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in its Q1 2024 investor letter:
“In the demographics/consumer trends theme, slowing sales volumes led us to focus more on services versus goods. As an example, we sold our position in food and beverage leader PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) given slowing growth in its underperforming core beverage business, one which generates about 60% of revenues. Adding to the uncertainty of growth prospects beverages, PepsiCo was forced by local lawmakers and industry wholesalers to shift to a new distribution model during the rollout of Hard Mtn Dew, a new line of drinks that combines Mountain Dew with malt liquor. We also exited our position in Wal-Mart de Mexico as the company regroups after Hurricane Otis devastated parts of Mexico’s west coast last fall. The damages will likely affect earnings over the medium term. We also sold consumer food and beverage giant Nestle due to slowing sales volume growth. Food inflation over the last two years has increased consumer price sensitivity, putting pressure on many in the industry. In contrast to these goods providers, we bought shares of TUI, an online travel agency that provides custom travel experiences via dynamically priced services such as airfare, lodging and local activities on one platform. We believe the addition of Ryanair to the platform, Europe’s largest airline, will strengthen TUI’s service offering at a time when travel spending is predicted to remain elevated at least through the summer.”
A close up of a glass of a refreshing carbonated beverage illustrating the company’s different beverages.
PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 62 hedge fund portfolios held PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) at the end of the first quarter which was 64 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) 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.
We discussed PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) in another article and shared the list of best quality dividend stocks to buy according to Reddit. 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.
