Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned -7.98%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of -7.96%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned -7.97%, compared to a return of -7.32% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. From a sector perspective, allocation impacts drove the sector’s underperformance, while security selection was positive. From an allocation perspective, the portfolio was hurt by its lack of exposure to energy and overweight exposure to health care. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) in the Q3 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) manages and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants. On December 1, 2023, Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) stock closed at $67.66 per share. One-month return of Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) was -0.72%, and its shares lost 17.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) has a market capitalization of $2.216 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund made the following comment about Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“Notable trims in the quarter included Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) Advanced Drainage and BlackLine. Papa John’s is a global operator and franchisor of pizza delivery and carryout restaurants. We originally invested in the company after a complete executive management team overhaul— notably, hiring a CEO, Rob Lynch, to spearhead a turnaround. Mr. Lynch brings previous leadership experience at large franchisors Arby’s and Taco Bell—where he worked alongside current Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol—and a marketing background at P&G. At Arby’s, Mr. Lynch led a turnaround effort where he shaped the company’s successful “We have the meats!” marketing campaign. Mr. Lynch has focused on reestablishing Papa John’s premium positioning with new food options, advertising campaigns and operational cost-cutting measures meant to improve margins. While we continue to believe in the long-term turnaround story, it is taking longer than we had originally expected. We began to harvest the position to fund higher conviction ideas.”
A stack of pizzas prepared in a wood-fired oven, with fresh ingredients laid out beside them in the kitchen.
Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 27 hedge fund portfolios held Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) at the end of third quarter which was 24 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) in another article and shared the list of most valuable restaurant companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2023 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.
