Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q2, data indicated strong US economic activity and a robust labor market, while inflation gradually moved closer to the Fed’s 2% target. In the second quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned -4.45%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of -4.40%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned -4.38%, compared to a return of -2.92% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. From a sector standpoint, the underperformance was due to negative security selection, while the impact of allocation was slightly positive. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) develops, markets, and distributes coconut water products under the Vita Coco brand name. The one-month return of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) was -12.81%, and its shares lost 8.02% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 26, 2024, The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) stock closed at $24.30 per share with a market capitalization of $1.377 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we initiated new GardenSM positions in Insmed and The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO). Vita Coco is the leading coconut water brand in the world. While this niche category has relatively low household penetration today, it is slowly growing as the product benefits from increased awareness, availability and acceptance as an alternative to sugary sports beverages. The company’s supply chain is an important competitive differentiator. It has secured long-term supply agreements with a network of factories across six countries that process coconut flesh into food and other products, allowing Vita Coco to obtain their coconut water that typically would be disposed of as a wasted byproduct. We believe the company should be able to drive total category growth for coconut water and its supply advantage should allow it to maintain a high market share, offer attractive pricing and expand margins.”
A close-up of a hand pouring a refreshing glass of coconut water.
The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 23 hedge fund portfolios held The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) at the end of the first quarter which was 23 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2024, The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) experienced a 2% increase in net sales, attributable to the growth of Vita Coco Coconut Water and private label coconut water. While we acknowledge the potential of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) 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 The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) and shared the list of small cap stocks corporate insiders are selling. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.