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 stocks like Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL). Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) is a leading manufacturer and marketer of advanced lightweight composites technology. On March 16, 2026, Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) stock closed at $81.82 per share. One-month return of Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) was -8.05%, and its shares gained 43.70% over the past 52 weeks. Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) has a market capitalization of $6.513 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“We also added to Bruker, Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) and Penumbra during the quarter. Hexcel is a leading aerospace composites supplier, well positioned to benefit from the recovery in aircraft production and a record industry backlog. We moved Hexcel to the top of the Garden SM this quarter, as we believe the worst of the cyclical pressures on new aircraft programs is behind us. With production ramping up, Hexcel should gain from higher build rates and increased composite content per aircraft. The company invested ahead of the upturn and faced inflationary pressures that it could not fully offset in recent years. As production accelerates, we expect Hexcel to recapture most, if not all, of these costs.”
Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 28 hedge fund portfolios held Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) at the end of the fourth quarter, the same as in the previous quarter. Hexcel Corporation’s (NYSE:HXL) total sales in Q4 2025 increased 1.6% in constant currency to $491 million. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) 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 Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) and shared a bullish thesis 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.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
