Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Small Cap Fund’ fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -6.99% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTSX, -6.93% by its Advisor Class: APDSX, and -6.93% by its Institutional Class: APHSX for the fourth quarter of 2021, all below the Russell 2000® Growth Index that delivered a 0.01% return and the Russell 2000® Index that was up by 2.14% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Artisan Small Cap Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRTC) and discussed its stance on the firm. iRhythm Technologies, Inc. is a San Francisco, California-based digital healthcare company with a $3.1 billion market capitalization. IRTC delivered a -8.56% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -29.67%. The stock closed at $107.61 per share on February 23, 2022.
Here is what Artisan Small Cap Fund has to say about iRhythm Technologies, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“iRhythm develops and markets the Zio, a small, wearable patch which monitors suspected heartbeat arrhythmias. The technology utilizes a proprietary algorithm, based on machine learning, capable of detecting multiple classes of arrhythmias from a database of over 2 million patients. The Zio is a significant improvement over the current standard of care, the much more cumbersome and uncomfortable Holter monitor. The growth runway is meaningful as the Holter monitor market ($2 billion) converts to patch sensors over time.
Recall, we began an investment campaign in iRhythm in early 2020 and exited our position in 2021 when our insurance reimbursement outlook was clouded after Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) Novitas cut reimbursement for the Zio. Several positive developments have prompted us to get involved once again. A new CEO, who we became familiar with while he served as the CFO and COO at Dexcom, was recently appointed. We believe he is taking the appropriate steps to spearhead changes to lower the Zio’s cost (as he did with Dexcom’s G6/G7 CGM), more aggressively push into international markets and explore use cases beyond arrhythmias. In addition, we are encouraged by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent decision to set reimbursement at $200 and have seen additional signs CMS and other MAC’s are starting to appreciate the Zio’s value proposition over the Holter monitor.”
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Our calculations show that iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRTC) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. IRTC was in 30 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 27 funds in the previous quarter. iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRTC) delivered a 9.25% return in the past 3 months.
In September 2021, we also shared Artisan Partners’ Q2 2021 views on IRTC in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
