Sanofi (SNY) A Top Detractor in Artisan Value’s Portfolio

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, a high value-added investment management firm, published its ‘Artisan Value Fund’ fourth quarter 2020 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 20% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTLX, 20.05% by its Advisor Class: APDLX, and 20.07% by its Institutional Class: APHLX, in the fourth quarter of 2020, all outperformed its Russell 1000 Value Benchmark that delivered a 16.25% return and its Russel 1000 Index that was up by 13.69% in the same period. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a peek at their top bets for 2021.

Artisan Value Fund, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, mentioned Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) and emphasized their views on the company. Sanofi is a Paris, France-based pharmaceutical company that currently has a $123.99 billion market capitalization. Since the beginning of the year, SNY delivered a 1.83% return, extending its 12-month gains to 30.14%. As of March 18, 2021, the stock closed at $49.11 per share.

Here is what Artisan Value Fund has to say about Sanofi in their Q4 2020 investor letter:

“Top detractors in Q4 included Sanofi. This defensive security was out of favor as vaccine distribution started in earnest and the market shifted focus to a post-COVID world. Sanofi performed about in line with other global pharmaceuticals companies. We believe Sanofi’s management team will have success improving the pipeline and managing costs through restructuring. For perspective, Swedish Match was down ~4% in the quarter but provided a 54% total return for 2020.”

Teva Pharmaceuticals TEVA Drugs

Our calculations show that Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) 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, Sanofi was in 15 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 20 funds in the third quarter. SNY delivered a 2.83% return in the past 3 months.