Artisan Small Cap Fund Exited Its Stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA) Due to Operational Challenges

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Global markets saw an incredible but volatile second quarter, shifting from deep declines to strong gains. In the quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned 7.30%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of 7.33%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned 7.36%, compared to a return of 11.97% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA). Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company. The one-month return of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) was -8.81%, and its shares lost 77.39 of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 22, 2025, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) stock closed at $2.69 per share, with a market capitalization of $973.387 million.

Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“We ended our investment campaigns in Saia, Freshworks and Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) during the quarter. Iovance Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on innovating, developing and delivering novel polyclonal tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) cell therapies for cancer patients. Our GardenSM capital campaign in Iovance was progressing well—the company advanced from drug development to approval to commercialization of a first-to-market therapy for late-stage melanoma, where no other life-saving treatments exist. While we remain encouraged by the drug’s efficacy and first-to-market therapy, we exited the position due to operational challenges that led to concerns regarding Iovance’s capital structure.”

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (IOVA): Among Stocks Under $10 that Will Triple

A medical staff in white coats monitoring the progress of cancer immunotherapy trials.

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 25 hedge fund portfolios held Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) at the end of the second quarter, which was 37 in the previous quarter. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) reported second quarter revenue of $60 million, up 22% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) and shared the list of most oversold penny stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 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.