Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Mid Cap Fund’ first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -2.36% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTMX, -2.32% by its Advisor Class: APDMX, and -2.30% by its Institutional Class: APHMX, in the fourth quarter of 2020, all below the Russell Midcap® Growth Index that delivered a -0.57% return and the Russell Midcap® Index that was up by 8.14% for the same period. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund, in its Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned IHS Markit Ltd. (NYSE: INFO), and shared their insights on the company. IHS Markit Ltd. is a London, United Kingdom-based financial services company that currently has a $45.5 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, INFO delivered a 19.73% return, extending its 12-month gains to 62.17%. As of May 06, 2021, the stock closed at $107.55 per share.
Here is what Artisan Mid Cap Fund has to say about IHS Markit Ltd. in its Q1 2021 investor letter:
“We ended our campaign in IHS Markit. IHS Markit is a global provider of information services to the financial services, automotive and energy sectors. Since beginning our investment campaign in 2009, we have been attracted to the company’s position relative to the meaningful secular tailwind driving demand for data and analytics to help guide business decisions. The company announced in Q4 it is merging with S&P Global, one of the largest credit ratings agencies globally and a provider of benchmarks, data and analytics to the global capital and commodities markets. We believe the combination provides a good level of cost and revenue synergies which will help drive profit growth, and S&P Global has a solid track record of acquiring and integrating new businesses. However, we exited our position as the combined entity will be well beyond our mid-cap market cap mandate.”
Our calculations show that IHS Markit Ltd. (NYSE: INFO) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, IHS Markit Ltd. was in 59 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 44 funds in the third quarter. INFO delivered a 19.55% return in the past 3 months.
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