Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund Increased its Stake in ICON Public Limited Company (ICLR). Here’s Why

1 week ago 7

Soumya Eswaran

Mon, January 5, 2026 astatine 6:27 AM CST 3 min read

Artisan Partners, an concern absorption company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund” third-quarter 2025 capitalist letter. A transcript of the missive tin beryllium downloaded here. In the quarter, the fund’s Investor Class money ARTQX returned 0.97%, Advisor Class money APDQX posted a instrumentality of 0.98%, and Institutional Class money APHQX returned 0.97%, compared to a 6.18% instrumentality for the Russell Midcap Value Index. Equity markets continued their rally successful the 3rd 4th arsenic investors overlooked tariff concerns, driven by beardown firm earnings, rising AI superior expenditures, and hopes for economical enactment from US fiscal argumentation and little involvement rates. In addition, delight cheque the fund’s apical 5 holdings to cognize its champion picks successful 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 capitalist letter, Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks specified arsenic ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR). Headquartered successful Dublin, Ireland, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is simply a objective probe enactment that offers outsourced improvement and commercialization services. The one-month instrumentality for ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was 3.61%, and its shares mislaid 12.45% implicit the past 52 weeks. On January 2, 2026, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) banal closed astatine $188.67 per share, with a marketplace capitalization of $14.673 billion.

Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund stated the pursuing regarding ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) successful its 3rd 4th 2025 capitalist letter:

"ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is the second-largest planetary declaration probe enactment (CRO), providing outsourced objective improvement services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Few areas of the US equity marketplace person been weaker implicit the past twelvemonth than beingness sciences, pharma, and biotech, but affirmative net reports successful July from ICON and different CROs, which lifted CROs’ stock prices, bespeak biopharma request whitethorn beryllium bottoming. The biopharma backing situation has remained challenged successful caller years owed successful portion to higher involvement rates, portion broader macroeconomic uncertainty is contributing to a weaker request situation characterized by cautious determination making among pharma and biotech. The existent backdrop has created the accidental to proceed to physique our presumption successful ICON—a banal we initially purchased successful November 2024. While the outlook remains cloudy, implicit the longer term, we expect ICON to make mid- to high-single-digit gross maturation successful a normalized situation and proceed to summation marketplace stock successful a fragmented industry. We besides judge escaped currency travel maturation tin beryllium enhanced by moving superior optimization and indebtedness paydown. In the meantime, the risk/reward looks charismatic arsenic ICON trades adjacent its cheapest levels since the 2008–2009 planetary fiscal situation astatine conscionable 13X guardant earnings."