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 Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) and discussed its stance on the firm. Chegg, Inc. is a Santa Clara, California-based education technology company with a $3.8 billion market capitalization. CHGG delivered a -70.63% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by -62.64%. The stock closed at $26.53 per share on November 19, 2021.
Here is what Artisan Mid-Cap Fund has to say about Chegg, Inc. in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“As we set our priorities for 2022, diversity is an area of focus. We think a reasonable place for us to start is at the boardroom level. Studies have shown board diversity can meaningfully impact how companies make decisions, deploy capital and ensure management’s actions align with the interests of all stakeholders. Additional benefits include increased creativity and innovation, a reduced potential for groupthink and entrenchment and more openness to a wider variety of value creation strategies such as R&D and/or risk management. Research has also shown diversity correlates with better financial performance.
Today’s corporate boardrooms and leadership teams do not always align with the gender and ethnic makeup of the broader workforce, which has evolved significantly over the past several decades, and we believe this is an opportunity for US domiciled companies. Today’s US civilian labor force consists of approximately 50% women (vs. 29% in 1950) and 20% ethnic minorities (vs. 12% in 1980). Meanwhile, according to 2021 data provided by an ISS ESG review of 45,643 director roles, 21% of board members were female and 14% were non-white. While progress has been made in recent decades, it has been slow, and we believe it is important for companies to remain focused on closing this gap.
Two holdings we believe are particularly forward leaning in this area and have already or are starting to disclose gender and ethnicity metrics (which includes) Chegg. Both companies’ boards are at least 40% female, and their public disclosures include varying degrees of gender, ethnicity and age metrics across different levels of the organization and how they have trended historically. We believe this level of transparency is important. It not only provides relevant stakeholders with a baseline to measure against over time, but it also provides more transparency into who the company is hiring, who is present and who is getting promoted.”
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Based on our calculations, Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. CHGG was in 38 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first half of 2021, compared to 33 funds in the previous quarter. Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) delivered a -66.36% return in the past 3 months.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
