Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Artisan Value Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund seeks to invest in undervalued companies with strong financial condition and attractive business economics. US equities ended a record year with robust fourth-quarter gains. AI remains the main theme of the market, and large-cap stocks led the rally in the fourth quarter. Against this backdrop, the portfolio outperformed the Russell 1000® Value Index in Q4 and returned 4.60% compared to 3.81% for the Index. In 2025, it returned 14.28% vs. 15.91% for the index. Over three, five, and ten years, the portfolio outperformed the index, reflecting its effective investment discipline. 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 Value Fund highlighted stocks like PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL). PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a leading technology platform that provides digital payment solutions for merchants and consumers. On March 13, 2026, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock closed at $44.90 per share. One-month return of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) was 11.44%, and its shares lost 35.53% over the past 52 weeks. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) has a market capitalization of $41.34 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Our biggest detractors were payments and financial technology companies Fiserv and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL). PayPal is the original e-commerce payments platform with years of experience in the marketplace, a large trove of customer data, a first class risk engine and embedded consumer and merchant trust. Presently, PayPal has over 200 million monthly active accounts globally and executes 26 billion network transactions per year, which equates to $1.7 trillion of payments volumes. Though branded payment volumes growth has been steady, and transaction margins have expanded, investors want to see growth accelerate. The payments space is highly competitive, and PayPal’s place in the future is by no means a given despite its considerable incumbency advantages. The current CEO, who joined in 2023, is reinvigorating the company after prior management was unfocused, made poor acquisitions and underinvested. Shares currently sell for just 10X next year’s expected earnings. We believe this is a highly attractive valuation for a business with above-average—and improving—unit economics, a strong balance sheet and consistent free cash flow. While we wait for stabilization of market share and a return to higher growth rates, we should have plenty of free cash flow pointed back at us in the form of share repurchases and dividends.”
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 78 hedge fund portfolios held PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 86 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) 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 PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and shared a list of best large cap growth stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.
