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 Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA). Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) is a North America-based transportation company. The one-month return of Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) was -19.79%, and its shares lost 36.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 5, 2025, Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) stock closed at $259.15 per share with a market capitalization of $6.902 billion.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Along with Spotify, notable trims in the quarter included Arista Networks and Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA). SAIA operates in less-than-truckload shipping, a structurally attractive area of transportation that features several solid franchise characteristics supported by real estate assets and network advantages. We continue to be attracted to SAIA’s thoughtful expansion of its distribution network, which should support market share gains and margin expansion over time. However, we reduced our position as we believe economic pressures from rising tariffs could impact volume growth for the industry."Is Saia, Inc. (SAIA) the Best Freight Stock to Buy According to Hedge Funds?

A long line of trucks transporting goods across the open road, symbolizing the long-distance transportation services of the company.

Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 32 in the third quarter. In the first quarter of 2025, Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) announced revenue of $787.6 million, marking a 4.3% increase compared to the same quarter last year. While we acknowledge the potential of Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) 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.

Story Continues

In another article, we covered Saia, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAIA) and shared the list of best freight stocks to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 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.

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