Here’s Why Ascendis Pharma A/S (ASND) Declined in Q2
Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Global Discovery Fund” second quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, its Investor Class fund APFDX returned 1.78%, Advisor Class fund APDDX posted a return of 1.78%, and Institutional Class fund APHDX returned 1.83%, compared to a return of 6.18% for the MSCI All Country World Index. Security selection in the IT and healthcare Sector led the fund to underperform in the quarter. Year-to-date, APFDX, APDDX, and APHDX returned 13.51%, 13.54%, and 13.68%, respectively, compared to 13.93% for the benchmark. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Artisan Global Discovery Fund highlighted stocks like Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark, Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is a biopharmaceutical company. On August 23, 2023, Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) stock closed at $93.99 per share. One-month return of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) was 7.36%, and its shares gained 0.09% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) has a market capitalization of $5.34 billion.
Artisan Global Discovery Fund made the following comment about Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
"Our underperformance in health care was entirely driven by two holdings, Catalent and Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND). Ascendis is a biotechnology company with a proprietary technology platform that supports pipeline development of multiple, best-in-class therapies. We have been focused on the anticipated 2023 approval of TransCon PTH to treat hyperparathyroidism, which would provide another tailwind to the company’s profit cycle. During the quarter, the market was disappointed to learn that the FDA was not yet ready to approve the product due to questions around its manufacturing controls. While clinical trial data and our conversations with experts leave us highly confident in the drug’s safety and efficacy profile, it can be hard to anticipate FDA questions or concerns about manufacturing. Fortunately, the company believes it can provide data in short order to address these questions, leaving us optimistic the approval delay will be less than 12 months. In the meantime, the company’s first approved drug—Skytrofa, for pediatric growth hormone deficiency—has seen accelerating market uptake, and our channel checks suggest strong physician interest in prescribing TransCon PTH once approved. Due to the added uncertainty and delay around TransCon PTH, we decided to trim the position."
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Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 20 hedge fund portfolios held Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) at the end of second quarter which was 26 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in another article and shared the list of worst performing biotech stocks in 2023. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
