Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned 2.35%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of 2.38%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned 2.40%, compared to a 6.54% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. Negative security selection within health care, information technology, and industrials led to the fund’s underperformance in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks like Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) offers sequencing- and array-based solutions for genetic and genomic analysis. The one-month return of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) was 12.71%, and its shares gained 22.05% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 15, 2024, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) stock closed at $147.61 per share with a market capitalization of $23.514 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Notable adds in the quarter included Samsara, Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and Onto Innovation. Illumina is a leading provider of next-generation sequencing instruments for genetic testing. As costs have fallen, genome sequencing has become more mainstream, expanding within academic research and beyond into high-value clinical diagnostic testing applications. The company has gone through a difficult few years after an unwise acquisition of Grail (a company that develops blood tests designed to detect cancers), a difficult transition to a new sequencing system and significant margin contraction. However, new management has focused on controlling costs, has spun out Grail and, in our view, is putting the company back on a path of sustainable growth. With a stock price that we do not believe reflects Illumina’s value as a unique life science tools franchise, we continue to build our GardenSM position.”
A research facility with medical professionals surrounded by diagnostic equipment.
Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 56 hedge fund portfolios held Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) at the end of the second quarter which was 48 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) 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 Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) and shared the list of cheap robotics stocks to buy. Patient Capital Opportunity Equity Strategy added Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) to its portfolio during Q2 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.