Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The equity market rally persisted in the third quarter as investors ignored tariffs, buoyed by strong corporate earnings, rising AI investment, and prospects of economic support from US fiscal policy and lower interest rates. Against this backdrop, the fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 0.83%, 0.91%, and 0.90%, respectively, in the third quarter compared to a 5.33% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2025.
In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks such as ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML). Headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) offers lithography solutions for the development and production of advanced semiconductor equipment systems. The one-month return for ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) was -1.40%, and its shares gained 54.10% over the last 52 weeks. On December 26, 2025, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) stock closed at $1,072.75 per share, with a market capitalization of $404.44 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“On the positive side, the three new purchases we made in Q2 during the post-Liberation Day market meltdown—Lam Research, ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) and Thermo Fisher Scientific—were each among our top contributors to returns in Q3. Lam and ASML are semiconductor equipment companies, and Thermo Fisher is a life science tools and clinical research company. As value investors, conditions of fear and uncertainty are fertile ground for creating attractive long-term buying opportunities. Few areas of the market were under greater pressure to start the year than semiconductors & semiconductor equipment stocks.
ASML is a Dutch manufacturer of advanced semiconductor equipment, with a near-monopoly in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography market. Every chip on every node on the planet is made with an ASML lithography machine. The world is consuming ever more chips, and the leading edge is moving to more complex architectures, driving capital intensity higher for manufacturing. ASML sells into this increasing demand with machines that allow innovation at the leading edge and ever-increasing efficiency in trailing nodes. EUV lithography systems are the only ones capable of producing advanced chips, with the smallest nanometer values. ASML’s high-NA EUV(high numerical aperture EUV) machine can cost over $400 million per unit and already has a decade-long roadmap with customers. With significant net cash on the balance sheet and a large backlog for arguably the most important machine in the world, we have little doubt ASML will exist on the other side of this trade war. When we took our position in April, ASML’s valuation was the cheapest in years, pricing in a slowdown from a recession and other turbulence. While ASML’s 2026 outlook remains clouded by macro and geopolitical uncertainties, quarterly bookings were better than expected, and shares rose in Q3.”
ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 82 hedge fund portfolios held ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) at the end of the third quarter, which was 78 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) 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 ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML) and shared stock picks from Ken Fisher’s growth stock portfolio. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.
