Here’s Why Fresenius Medical (FMS) Became One of Artisan International’s Worst Stock Performers

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan International Value Fund’ first quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 8.35% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTKX, 8.36% by its Advisor Class: APDKX, and 8.40% by its Institutional Class: APHKX for the fourth quarter of 2020, all outperforming the MSCI EAFE Index that delivered a 3.48% return and the MSCI All Country World ex USA Index that was up by 3.49% for the same period. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Artisan International Value Fund, in its Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE: FMS), and shared their insights on the company. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA is a Bad Homburg, Germany-based kidney dialysis centers company that currently has a $23.8 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, FMS delivered a -1.97% return, while its 12-month gains are up by 2.54%. As of May 17, 2021, the stock closed at $40.74 per share.

Here is what Artisan International Value Fund has to say about Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA in its Q1 2021 investor letter:

Fresenius Medical Care is the world’s largest provider of kidney dialysis services and equipment. During the quarter, the company announced a significant decline in earnings. Unfortunately, the mortality rate of the company’s patient population surged at the end of the year due to the spike in COVID cases. Though our estimate of intrinsic value declined modestly, we expect the cohort of customers receiving services to rebound over the next two years, leaving the share price at an attractive valuation.”

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Our calculations show that Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE: FMS) does not belong in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA was in 9 hedge fund portfolios. FMS delivered a 9.69% return in the past 3 months.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 231.2% between 2015 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 126 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Here you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.