Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US stocks concluded a strong year with strong gains in Q4. In Q4, the portfolio’s performance was flat and narrowly trailed the Russell 2000® Growth Index. In 2024, the portfolio produced a robust absolute return that was in line with the Russell 2000® Growth Index but outperformed the Russell 2000 Index. In the quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned 0.61%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of 0.66%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned 0.67%, compared to a return of 1.70% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Artisan Small Cap Fund emphasized stocks such as The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO). The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) develops, markets, and distributes coconut water products under the Vita Coco brand name. The one-month return of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) was -14.02%, and its shares gained 36.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 7, 2025, The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) stock closed at $33.86 per share with a market capitalization of $1.93 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Among our top Q4 contributors were Astera Labs, Veracyte and The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO). Vita Coco is the leading coconut water brand in the world. While this niche category has relatively low household penetration today, it is slowly growing as the product benefits from increased awareness, availability and acceptance as an alternative to sugary sports beverages. The company’s supply chain is an important competitive differentiator. It has secured long-term supply agreements with a network of factories across six countries that process coconut flesh into food and other products, which allow Vita Coco to obtain their coconut water that typically would be disposed of as a wasted byproduct. We believe the company should be able to drive total category growth for coconut water, and its supply advantage should allow it to maintain a high market share, offer attractive pricing and expand margins. Recent earnings results displayed that end market demand remains robust, offsetting supply pressures from global shipping constraints.”
A close-up of a hand pouring a refreshing glass of coconut water.
The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 20 hedge fund portfolios held The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 12 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) 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 The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) and shared Conestoga Capital Advisors’ views on the company in the previous quarter. Artisan Small Cap Fund initiated a position in The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) during Q2 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.