Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned 5.11%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of 5.14%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned 5.14%, compared to an 8.14% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. Following Donald Trump’s election win, optimism surged over deregulation and tax cuts. However, concerns about inflation from proposed tariffs and immigration policies emerged in December, introducing market volatility. Despite this, markets ended 2024 with strong gains, marking one of the best two-year performance stretches in decades. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund emphasized stocks such as Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL). Headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia, Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) designs, manufactures, and services engineered products and solutions for the water industry. The one-month return of Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) was 0.42%, and its shares gained 2.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 3, 2025, Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) stock closed at $129.78 per share with a market capitalization of $31.799 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Among our top detractors were Monolithic Power Systems, Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) and Exact Sciences. Xylem is a global leader in water technology across pumps, smart meters and treatment services. More than 80% of the company’s sales come from markets where it maintains the No. 1 or No. 2market position. Xylem’s pumps business (sold primarily to utilities) is sticky and profitable, providing capital to invest in innovative solutions, such as smart meters. In mid-2023, Xylem completed the acquisition of Evoqua, giving it a leading position in the US water treatment business. Unfortunately, the company reported its first earning miss during the quarter after a series of beats due to pockets of geographic weakness and some project delays. Despite the short-term setback, we believe the company is at the start of a compelling profit cycle as smart meter sales recover from supply chain issues, cost and revenue synergies are realized from its acquisition, and the newly hired and well-respected CFO helps catalyze long-awaited margin expansion.”
A technician opening a valve in a water infrastructure facility.
Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 32 hedge fund portfolios held Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 43 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) 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 Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) and shared the list of best water stocks to buy according to hedge funds. Artisan Mid Cap Fund added Xylem Inc. (NYSE:XYL) to its portfolio during Q1 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.