Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Small Cap Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The third quarter saw strength in small cap stocks, particularly in July when the return on the Russell 2000 Index was 10.2%. In the quarter, its Investor Class fund ARTSX returned 9.02%, Advisor Class fund APDSX posted a return of 9.04%, and Institutional Class fund APHSX returned 9.06%, compared to a return of 8.41% for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Outperformance of the fund in the quarter was driven by positive security selection within health care and consumer discretionary sectors. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Artisan Small Cap Fund highlighted stocks like E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is a beauty company that offers cosmetic and skin care products. The one-month return of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) was 11.33%, and its shares lost 3.46% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 10, 2024, E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) stock closed at $137.60 per share with a market capitalization of $7.846 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund stated the following regarding E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Among our top detractors were iRhythm, E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) and Lattice Semiconductor. E.l.f. Beauty is a cosmetics company that employs a low-price strategy, a sizeable social media presence and rapid speed to market. Its core business aims to replicate existing prestige products at a lower price and recognize new and emerging trends. Its share of the US cosmetics market is around 10%. We expected it would gain more market share in the US and leverage social media to expand into new markets, such as Western Europe, India and Latin America. However, we decided to exit the position due to evidence of decelerating growth. The company and the broader category are experiencing macro-related headwinds and elevated inventory levels at distribution partners. We continue to believe in the long-term outlook and will keep it on our watchlist.”
A close up of the lip and eye products from the company on a model in a fashion and beauty shoot.
E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 40 hedge fund portfolios held E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) at the end of the third quarter which was 40 in the previous quarter. E.l.f. Beauty, Inc.’s (NYSE:ELF) revenue grew 40% year-over-year in the fiscal second quarter of 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed E.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE:ELF) and shared Carillon Eagle Small Cap Growth Fund’s views on the company. Polen U.S. Small Company Growth Strategy expressed its confidence in E.l.f. Beauty, Inc.’s (NYSE:ELF) future growth potential in its Q3 2024 investor letter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 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.