Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its “Artisan Value Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 4.48% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTLX, 4.55% by its Advisor Class: APDLX, and 4.54% was gained by its Institutional Class: APHLX for the fourth quarter of 2021, all below the Russell 1000® Value Index that delivered a 7.77% return, and the Russell 1000® Index that gained 9.78% 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 Value Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG) and discussed its stance on the firm. Koninklijke Philips N.V. is an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based multinational conglomerate company with a $30.3 billion market capitalization. PHG delivered a -5.24% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -35.81%. The stock closed at $34.92 per share on February 25, 2022.
Here is what Artisan Value Fund has to say about Koninklijke Philips N.V. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“In the health care sector, our biggest detractor was Philips. Philips was a Q3 purchase. After exiting more consumer-focused businesses such as TV and lighting over the past decade, Philips has become a health care technology company operating across three main areas: diagnosis and treatment, connected care and personal health. Shares came under pressure due to a recall of its first-generation CPAP machine for sleep apnea and fears regarding potential litigation. This created our opportunity to get involved. However, following our initial purchase, shares fell further in November after the FDA provided an update on the device recall and delineated deficiencies identified from an inspection of the device’s main manufacturing facility, which in itself is not unusual. Investors’ key sources of concern likely center around the recall expanding to additional products, the potential for legal recourse and potential market share losses arising in the sleep division. Nonetheless, the sleep division is a small part of the overall business—which we do not believe is going to zero. The company has a large installed base of medical diagnostic equipment (e.g., MRI/PET/CT/ultrasound scanners) that offers a high recurring stream of software-like maintenance revenues. This is a sticky business as medical providers are reluctant to switch over to competitors. We believe shares have been overly penalized, so we added to our position on weakness.”
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Our calculations show that Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PHG was in 12 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 11 funds in the previous quarter. Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG) delivered a -5.98% return in the past 3 months.
In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on PHG 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.
