Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned -7.40%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of -7.37%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned -7.35%, compared to a -7.12% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. After a period of strong growth stock performance in 2023 and 2024, value stocks gained the lead in Q1 2025. In a risk-averse environment, investors shifted towards lower-volatility equities, especially in the utilities and consumer staples sectors, alongside those with higher dividend yields. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH). DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) is a commerce platform that connects merchants, consumers, and independent contractors. The one-month return of DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) was 8.92%, and its shares gained 81.74% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 5, 2025, DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) stock closed at $205.40 per share with a market capitalization of $87.037 billion.
Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Notable adds in the quarter included DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ:DASH), CCC Intelligent Solutions and Bright Horizons. DoorDash is a technology-driven marketplace that enables couriers (Dashers) to deliver restaurant and other local orders on-demand to consumers. The company is a market leader in restaurant delivery, a business that continues to gain US market share (with healthy margins) and grow internationally. At the same time, the company is investing heavily into new business lines such as grocery delivery, which is a largely untapped market due to inventory management challenges (in-person grocery shopping involves a high degree of product substitution). This business unit has been losing money. However, the company believes it has a competitive cost advantage given its existing Dasher network, and continued growth should lead to profitability—something it is not getting credit for by the market. Recent earnings results displayed solid execution within its food delivery business, where it continues to demonstrate market share gains while generating impressive margins.”
