Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Artisan Value Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund seeks to invest in undervalued companies with strong financial condition and attractive business economics. US equities ended a record year with robust fourth-quarter gains. AI remains the main theme of the market, and large-cap stocks led the rally in the fourth quarter. Against this backdrop, the portfolio outperformed the Russell 1000® Value Index in Q4 and returned 4.60% compared to 3.81% for the Index. In 2025, it returned 14.28% vs. 15.91% for the index. Over three, five, and ten years, the portfolio outperformed the index, reflecting its effective investment discipline. 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 Value Fund highlighted Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) as one of its leading contributors. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is a leader in the fabrication equipment used in the production of integrated circuits. On March 13, 2026, Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) stock closed at $212.20 per share. One-month return of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) was -9.91%, and its shares gained 170.97% over the past 52 weeks. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) has a market capitalization of $266.53 billion.
Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Our top three individual contributors, each returning 20%-plus, were Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX), Alphabet and Merck. Lam Research, a global leader in wafer fabrication equipment used in the production of semiconductors, is continuing to see strong demand for its chipmaking tools supported by the current massive buildout of data centers running AI applications. We purchased Lam in April near the depths of the post-Liberation Day market selloff. As value investors, conditions of fear and uncertainty are fertile ground for creating attractive long-term buying opportunities. Few areas of the market were under greater pressure to start the year than semiconductors & semiconductor equipment stocks. We had been researching Lam since 2023, so we knew the company well and were able to act quickly when the stock plunged. At our initial purchase, Lam was selling for ~$60, almost 50% below its July 2024 highs. Lam is one of the key global suppliers of chip equipment serving the memory (NAND and DRAM) and foundry/logic markets. The financial condition is rock solid as it has a net cash balance sheet, and the company returns 100%ofearnings to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends. Shares were selling for a 17X P/E on cyclically depressed earnings at the time of initial purchase, which we believed was an attractive valuation given the compounding nature of the business.”
Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 104 hedge fund portfolios held Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 93 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) 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 Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) and shared the list of AI stocks that are quietly making investors rich. 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.
