Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2026 investor letter for its “Artisan Small Cap Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund reported strong absolute returns and modestly outperformed the Russell 2000® Growth Index, which gained 25.7%. Global equities rebounded as resilient US growth, moderating inflation, strong earnings and continued AI investment outweighed delayed rate cuts, rising bond yields and geopolitical uncertainty. Investor Class: ARTSX, Advisor Class: APDSX, and Institutional Class: APHSX returned 26.02%, 26.05%, and 26.11%, respectively, in the second quarter, compared to a 25.71% return for the index. Market leadership favored loss-making, highly leveraged companies, creating a difficult environment for quality-focused active managers. Health care was the strongest relative contributor, while energy, materials, financials and real estate also helped. Technology, industrials and consumer discretionary detracted, partly because the fund did not own oversized index contributors. Software holdings also weakened despite strong fundamentals. The fund remains positive on small-cap opportunities, AI infrastructure and health care, but has reduced software exposure and is staying selective as valuations rise and competitive risks increase. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA). Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) engages in marketing of retail motor fuel products and convenience merchandise. On July 23. 2026, Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) closed at $622.75 per share. One-month return of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) was 17.97% and its shares gained 44.38% over the past 52 weeks. Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) has a market capitalization of $11.41 billion with a 52-week trading range between $345.23 – $636.05.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
“Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) operates a convenience store and fuel retail network built around an everyday low-price strategy, supported by an advantaged fuel procurement model and low-cost operating structure. The stock had been on our watchlist, and we initiated a Garden position following a management change. We later elevated it to a Crop position as our work increased conviction that the company’s everyday low-price fuel and nicotine strategy would matter again. In our view, Murphy is entering a favorable profit cycle, supported by structurally improving fuel margins, continued market share gains, ongoing new store growth and operational improvements under the new management team.”
Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) is not on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 41 hedge fund portfolios held Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) at the end of the first quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) 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 Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Murphy USA Inc. (NYSE:MUSA) and shared a bullish thesis on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2026 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.
