Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned 7.60%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of 7.63%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned 7.62%, compared to a return of 6.07% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Both allocation and security selection drove the portfolio to outperform in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Addison, Texas, Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is a restaurant company that operates under the brand name Wingstop. On May 18, 2023, Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) stock closed at $204.10 per share. One-month return of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) was 7.22%, and its shares gained 178.98% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) has a market capitalization of $6.117 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund made the following comment about Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is a quick-service restaurant franchisor specializing in fresh, cooked-to-order chicken products including wings, sandwiches and side orders. The company is in the early stages of growing its store footprint domestically and internationally, which we believe is supported by attractive economics for franchisees and growing brand awareness in new and existing markets. Fourth quarter earnings results showed continued momentum for the company. Strong same-store sales momentum is being driven by the combined impact of several factors, including menu innovation, national branding efforts, integration of a second delivery provider (Uber Eats) and an ongoing value-based bundling strategy. Furthermore, this same-store sales increase was entirely traffic driven (rather than by rising prices), which stands in stark contrast to its competitors that have taken upward of double-digit pricing in some cases. Meanwhile, we continue to be optimistic about new store expansion potential in the periods ahead as strong unit-level returns are driving payback periods for the company’s “brand partners” (i.e., franchisees) that are less than two years.”
Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 22 hedge fund portfolios held Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 23 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in another article and shared the list of best fast-food stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 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.