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| Quarter | Letter Date | Fund Name | QTD | YTD | Tickers | Themes | Quick Take |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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"Artisan Focus Fund delivered 21.11% in Q2 2026, outperforming the S&P 500 by 591 basis points through broad-based gains across semiconductors, aerospace, industrials and financials. The concentrated portfolio targets companies experiencing improving fundamentals during major capital formation cycles, with materially lower index dependence than the benchmark while positioned for higher returns on capital and faster earnings growth through 2028."
The Artisan Focus Fund appreciated 21.11% in Q2 2026 versus 15.20% for the S&P 500 Index, extending year-to-date alpha to 6.35 percentage points. The manager's bottom-up process focuses on identifying companies experiencing improving fundamentals during major capital formation cycles, which create uncertainty and investment opportunities. Q2 performance was broad-based across semiconductors, aerospace, industrials and financials, driven by company fundamentals rather than factor exposure. The portfolio differs materially from the increasingly concentrated S&P 500 Index, with lower dependence on the largest stocks (R² of 0.77 versus 0.91) while delivering higher cumulative returns (382% versus 267% since inception). Looking forward, the portfolio is positioned for stronger fundamental outcomes including higher returns on invested capital (17% to 22% versus 10%) and faster earnings growth (88% versus 68% through 2028). The manager updated the thematic framework to reflect evolving capital formation cycles, renaming De-Globalization to US Output, Transformation of the Enterprise to Compute Infrastructure, and introducing Evolving Financials to capture regulatory reform and capital return opportunities. The manager believes multiple major capital cycles are occurring simultaneously across AI infrastructure, aerospace, domestic manufacturing and financials, creating differentiated opportunities for active management.
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