Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned -7.40%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of -7.37%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned -7.35%, compared to a -7.12% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. After a period of strong growth stock performance in 2023 and 2024, value stocks gained the lead in Q1 2025. In a risk-averse environment, investors shifted towards lower-volatility equities, especially in the utilities and consumer staples sectors, alongside those with higher dividend yields. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK). Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) is a company that provides passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transportation. The one-month return of Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) was 20.53%, and its shares gained 49.39% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 5, 2025, Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) stock closed at $42.80 per share with a market capitalization of $18.958 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we initiated new GardenSM positions in Baker Hughes, Snowflake and Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK). Viking is a leading operator in river and luxury ocean cruising, with a business model built around affluent US travelers. Originally focused on European rivers, the company has expanded into the US and Egypt and has added ocean cruises to tap into adjacent destinations. Unlike peers, Viking emphasizes destination-focused itineraries over onboard amenities, which supports higher profitability. Given strong demand (2025 bookings are nearly full) and a differentiated offering, we view Viking as a top-tier franchise well positioned for revenue growth and margin expansion.”
A luxury cruise ship in motion in the ocean, with passengers enjoying the view on the deck.
Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 16 hedge fund portfolios held Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 15 in the third quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2024, Viking Holdings Ltd.’s (NYSE:VIK) total revenue rose by 20.5% year-over-year, approaching $1.4 billion on a consolidated basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) and shared the list of billionaire George Soros’ mid-cap stocks with huge upside potential. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.