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 Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV). Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) is a health benefits company. The one-month return of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) was 5.28%, and its shares lost 5.56% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 29, 2025, Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) stock closed at $348.38 per share, with a market capitalization of $77.42 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Though the rally’s tide lifted most boats, we’re still finding our share of unloved and out-of-favor businesses. In Q3, we made three new purchases: Accenture, Salesforce and Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV). We swapped one managed care company for another in purchasing Elevance and selling Cigna. Both companies operate health insurance businesses and trade cheaply, but their business mixes are different. Formerly known as Anthem and Wellpoint, Elevance is one of the nation’s largest health insurers and the largest for-profit entity in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The company operates in commercial, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid through its health benefits segment and provides pharmacy benefits, life insurance and disability insurance. Cigna has a much larger pharmacy benefits management (PBM)business that generates over 50% of operating profits. There are rumblings in Washington about PBM reform, which should pose a greater risk to Cigna than to Elevance. Our investment case for Elevance, like other managed care companies, is its currently depressed earnings can recover as pricing adjusts higher in line with rising costs, and as this occurs, the stock price multiple can also normalize. At the time of initial purchase, Elevance shares were trading under 10X depressed 2025 expected earnings per share, compared to its 10-year average of 16X.”
Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 82 hedge fund portfolios held Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) at the end of the third quarter, which was 67 in the previous quarter. In Q3 2025, Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) reported $50.1 billion of operating revenue, an increase of 12% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) 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 Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) and shared the list of best affordable healthcare stocks to buy. Harding Loevner Global Equity Strategy also initiated a position in Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) in Q3 2025. 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.
