Here’s Why Artisan Partners Small Cap Fund Exited Wolfspeed (WOLF)
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 Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is a semiconductor manufacturing company. On May 19, 2023, Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) stock closed at $44.03 per share. One-month return of Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) was -26.26%, and its shares lost 35.29% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) has a market capitalization of $5.481 billion.
Artisan Small Cap Fund made the following comment about Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
"Along with SVB Financial Group and Morningstar, we ended our investment campaign in Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) during the quarter. Wolfspeed is the leading manufacturer of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, the next generation of power semiconductors. SiC wafers, relative to their silicon counterparts, provide significant efficiency increases and are better suited for high-voltage applications. We believe the market for SiC wafers could grow significantly over the next decade (up to 20% annually), primarily driven by battery electric vehicles capturing share from their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts as various public and private sector initiatives are expected to phase out ICE vehicles over the coming decades. Chips made from SiC provide greater driving range (5%-10%), a faster rate of charging and are cheaper (5%-10%). Unfortunately, while we believe the profit cycle opportunity for Wolfspeed could be immense over the long term, we have grown frustrated with execution issues surrounding its new Mohawk Valley fab and decided to harvest the position."
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Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 30 hedge fund portfolios held Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 39 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) in another article and shared Artisan Global Discovery Fund's views on the company in the previous quarter. 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.
