Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTQX returned -5.37%, Advisor Class fund APDQX posted a return of -5.34%, and Institutional Class fund APHQX returned -5.28, compared to a -3.40% return for the Russell Midcap Value Index. Markets contracted in Q2 after widespread market participation drove US stocks upward in late 2023 and early 2024, with a few mega-cap technology names pushing the S&P 500 Index to all-time highs. Healthcare and consumer discretionary holdings held back the portfolio’s performance relative to the index. Financials, industrials, and technology holdings outperformed on the positive side. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) offers a range of enterprise software, systems, and services that customers use to transform their data infrastructures. The one-month return of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was -13.03%, and its shares gained 52.23% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 6, 2024, NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) stock closed at $117.08 per share with a market capitalization of $24.068 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund stated the following regarding NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Turning to the positive side of the ledger, our top contributors were Analog Devices, NetApp and Arch Capital Group. NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) is an enterprise data storage and solutions company with a specialization in all-flash (i.e., solid-state) storage. Sales of the company’s higher margin flash products (+17% y/y) boosted margins and helped offset rising NAND component costs. Notably, the mix shift to flash is driving structurally higher gross margins. The boom in AI infrastructure investment, though still a small portion of its sales, increases the potential long-term growth opportunity for the company’s storage solutions, and this element has likely contributed to the stock’s strong gains. While NetApp retains a healthy balance sheet and earns strong free cash flow margins, we used the stock’s strength to reduce exposure.”
A multi-monitor workstation displaying data-centric services.
NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 41 hedge fund portfolios held NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) at the end of the first quarter which was 35 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) 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 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.
