Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Artisan Small Cap Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund seeks to invest in companies that possess franchise characteristics, with strong earnings trajectories, and are trading at a discount to the estimated private market value. Despite strong results in 2025, volatility was elevated, and sentiment shifted frequently, influenced by political developments in the US, evolving trade policy rhetoric, changing expectations for monetary policy, and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, the Fund posted strong absolute returns in the fourth quarter, outperforming both the Russell 2000® Growth Index and the Russell 2000® Index. The portfolio delivered strong results in the quarter across all segments. In contrast, for the full year, the Fund generated strong results but trailed both the indexes. In Q4 2025, the market leadership shifted back to companies with durable profit cycles. Moving to 2026, the firm continues to focus on its proven technique of identifying profit cycles in franchise companies at reasonable valuations. 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 Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO). The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) is a non-alcoholic beverage company that specializes in the manufacturing and distribution of coconut water products under the Vita Coco brand name. On March 16, 2026, The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) stock closed at $60.60 per share. One-month return of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) was 7.22%, and its shares gained 75.04% over the past 52 weeks. The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) has a market capitalization of $3.459 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Our top contributors in Q4 were MACOM Technology Solutions, Insmed and Vita Coco. Vita Coco is the world’s leading coconut water brand. It has been benefiting from strong volume growth across North America and select European markets as awareness and availability grow. Earlier challenges from the loss of a private label relationships a year ago and an aisle reset at a major retail customer are easing as new private label partnerships are established and aisle resets conclude. Additionally, coconut water is exempt from tariff-related headwinds as it is a naturally occurring product that cannot be produced in the US.”
The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 28 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) 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 The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer discussed recently. In Q4 2025, The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COCO) gained from The Vita Coco Company, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:COCO) strong brand momentum and revenue growth. 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.
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