Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Small Cap Fund’ third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -1.20% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTSX, -1.17% by its Advisor Class: APDSX, and -1.13% by its Institutional Class: APHSX for the third quarter of 2021, all above the Russell 2000® Growth Index that delivered a -5.65% return and the Russell 2000® Index that was down by -4.36% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.
Artisan Small Cap Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) and discussed its stance on the firm. Papa John’s International, Inc. is a Louisville, Kentucky-based restaurant company with a $4.5 billion market capitalization. PZZA delivered a 46.48% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 53.71%. The stock closed at $124.29 per share on December 03, 2021.
Here is what Artisan Small Cap Fund has to say about Papa John’s International, Inc. in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“Papa John’s is a global operator and franchisor of pizza delivery and carryout restaurants. The company is tracking nicely against our turnaround thesis which hinges upon an improvement in store-level economics leading to accelerating growth in restaurant development activity. Improved store-level economics is being driven in part by market share gains resulting from menu innovation. New menu items—parmesan crusted Papadias, Epic Stuffed Crust, Shaq-a-roni— coupled with enhancements to the digital/loyalty platform and supportive advertising are attracting new customers to the brand, increasing frequency of its existing customers and driving higher unit volumes and returns. As a result, the company is experiencing incremental interest from new and existing franchisees to develop new restaurants. Papa John’s opened a record 123 units in the first half of 2021 and now expects to open 220-260 new stores this year (vs. 140-180 previously)—most of which are outside of the US. Combined with ample white space globally, we believe a higher unit growth trajectory will drive an attractive and sustainable profit cycle.”
Based on our calculations, Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PZZA was in 33 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 30 funds in the previous quarter. Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) delivered a -4.72% return in the past 3 months.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
