Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the third quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned 2.35%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of 2.38%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned 2.40%, compared to a 6.54% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. Negative security selection within health care, information technology, and industrials led to the fund’s underperformance in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks like Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) offers audio streaming subscription services. The one-month return of Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) was 8.32%, and its shares gained 150.20% of their value over the last 52 weeks.  On October 15, 2024, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) stock closed at $372.60 per share with a market capitalization of $74.821 billion.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"Among our top Q3 contributors were Argenx, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) and Exact Sciences. Spotify is a leading global audio streaming franchise with over 600 million monthly active users. We believe its position in the supply chain is solid given a secular trend of fragmentation in the music industry as well as internal product and pricing initiatives. Shares rallied after the company reported strong earnings results, including 20% revenue growth. Importantly, the company’s profit margin is expanding nicely, and we believe it can rise further due to likely price increases, potentially better terms with labels and further cost discipline."

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Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 88 hedge fund portfolios held Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) at the end of the second quarter which was 77 in the previous quarter. Spotify Technology S.A.’s (NYSE:SPOT) total revenue for the second quarter increased by 21% year over year on a constant currency basis to €3.8 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) 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.