Here’s Why Artisan Partners Reduced its Exact Sciences Corp. (EXAS) Position

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Mid Cap Fund’ third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 3.06% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTMX, 3.11% by its Advisor Class: APDMX, and 3.12% by its Institutional Class: APHMX, in the third quarter of 2021, all outpacing the Russell Midcap® Growth Index that delivered a -0.76% return, and the Russell Midcap® Index that was down by -0.93% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Artisan Mid-Cap Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAS) and discussed its stance on the firm. Exact Sciences Corporation is a Madison, Wisconsin-based molecular diagnostics company with a $14.4 billion market capitalization. EXAS delivered a -36.56% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -27.06%. The stock closed at $84.05 per share on November 19, 2021.

Here is what Artisan Mid-Cap Fund has to say about Exact Sciences Corporation  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“In addition to trimming our positions in Atlassian, Global Payments and BioNTech, we also pared our exposure to Exact Sciences. Shares have underperformed as Cologuard’s reacceleration has not lived up to expectations. Generally, physicians’ offices are still restricting access to field sales representatives, and the delta variant is leading to another wave of delayed wellness/primary care visits. We believe inperson access to doctors for sales representatives—key to Cologuard’s growth—may remain limited for some time. Meanwhile, the company’s pipeline of new cancer diagnostics, while promising, is still several years away from contributing financially. We reduced our position size to fund investments with clearer near-to-intermediate term outlooks.”

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Based on our calculations, Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAS) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. EXAS was in 35 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first half of 2021, compared to 41 funds in the previous quarter. Exact Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAS) delivered a -9.80% return in the past 3 months.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.