Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Artisan Small Cap Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund seeks to invest in companies that possess franchise characteristics, with strong earnings trajectories, and are trading at a discount to the estimated private market value. Despite strong results in 2025, volatility was elevated, and sentiment shifted frequently, influenced by political developments in the US, evolving trade policy rhetoric, changing expectations for monetary policy, and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, the Fund posted strong absolute returns in the fourth quarter, outperforming both the Russell 2000® Growth Index and the Russell 2000® Index. The portfolio delivered strong results in the quarter across all segments. In contrast, for the full year, the Fund generated strong results but trailed both the indexes. In Q4 2025, the market leadership shifted back to companies with durable profit cycles. Moving to 2026, the firm continues to focus on its proven technique of identifying profit cycles in franchise companies at reasonable valuations. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stock Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX). Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) provides technology innovation, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions to data center, communications, enterprise, and power industries. On March 16, 2026, Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) stock closed at $64.45 per share. One-month return of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) was 0.40%, and its shares are up 85.90% over the past twelve months. Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)has a market capitalization of $23.9 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Notable trims during the quarter were iRhythm, Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) and Lattice Semiconductor. Flex is a global manufacturing and supply chain solutions provider with exposure to high-margin AI and cloud data center infrastructure, particularly power and cooling systems. We began harvesting our position this quarter as its market capitalization has grown beyond our small cap mandate. We continue to view management favorably for its focus on optimizing product mix toward higher margin, fast-growing segments such as data centers and power.”
Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 62 hedge fund portfolios held Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 60 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) 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 Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) and shared Sound Shore Management’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: 33 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 15 Stocks That Will Make You Rich in 10 Years.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
