Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US markets narrowed in Q2 after broad market activity that drove US stocks higher in late 2023 and early 2024, with a few mega-cap technology names lifting the S&P 500® Index to all-time highs on the AI FOMO. The fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned -2.41%, -2.36%, and -2.36% respectively, in the second quarter compared to -2.17% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index. The positive stock selection in the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors offset the underperformance in the industrials and consumer staples sectors in the second quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks like Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) is a health technology company that operates through the Diagnosis & Treatment Business, Connected Care Business, and Personal Health business segments. The one-month return of Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) was 2.72%, and its shares gained 44.48% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 4, 2024, Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) stock closed at $29.80 per share with a market capitalization of $27.908 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Turning to the positive side of the ledger, our biggest gainers this quarter were Alphabet, Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) and Texas Instruments. Uncertainty regarding potential litigation liabilities related to Philips’ first-generation CPAP machine, which has been an overhang on the stock, was removed upon the health care technology company reaching a $1.1 billion settlement over claims the breathing device harmed users. The settlement’s dollar amount is in line with our expectations but looks to have been much lower than others’ views given the stock’s immediate 30%-plus price move on the announcement. With the litigation settled, the company can return to focusing on the fundamentals of the underlying businesses and fulfilling its requirements under the consent decree with the US government. The consent decree provides a roadmap of required actions and prohibitions—a process likely to take three years to conclude. As part of the consent decree, Philips is prohibited from selling CPAP or BiPAP sleep devices in the US. However, Philips may still service sleep and respiratory care devices already with health care providers and patients and may continue to sell other products in the US. Further, it does not impact the company’s sales outside the US. The overall terms are as expected, and there is now a path forward for Philips to eventually return to the market.”
A medical professional using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to diagnose a patient in a hospital setting.
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 11 hedge fund portfolios held Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) at the end of the second quarter which was 12 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) 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 Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) and shared Artisan Value Income Fund’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.