Artisan Partners released its second‑quarter 2026 investor commentary for the Artisan Global Opportunities Strategy. Global equities rebounded sharply during the quarter, with the MSCI ACWI Index returning 15.3% as resilient economic growth, strong corporate earnings, and continued enthusiasm around artificial intelligence supported markets despite persistent inflation, higher bond yields, and geopolitical uncertainty. The portfolio recorded strong absolute net returns of 12.65% but underperformed the benchmark, mainly because of its underweight exposure to information technology and overweight position in health care. Strong stock selection in technology and energy partially offset these headwinds. The fund continues to see attractive long‑term opportunities across AI infrastructure, health care and consumer internet, while remaining disciplined on valuation as several AI‑related stocks have appreciated sharply. Management remains focused on durable franchises with identifiable profit cycles and attractive long‑term earnings potential.
In its second‑quarter 2026 investor letter, the Artisan Global Opportunities Strategy highlighted STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM). STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor products in Europe and internationally. On September 01, 2026, STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) closed at $49.40 per share. STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) declined 4.26% over the past month, while its shares gained 95.81% over the past 52 weeks. STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) has a market capitalization of $43.76 billion.
“Corning and STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) represent earlier stage semiconductor supply chain opportunities that we believe will see growing demand as AI infrastructure spending broadens beyond today’s most obvious beneficiaries. In both cases, we see a potential opportunity for higher value, higher margin products as data centers require greater optical connectivity, semiconductor content and related infrastructure. STMicroelectronics designs, develops, manufactures and markets semiconductor integrated circuits and discrete devices used across telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive, computer and industrial end markets. We initiated a GardenSM position as the analog semiconductor cycle appears to be inflecting, with gross margins bottoming and earnings revisions beginning to improve. We anticipate earnings power could improve meaningfully as utilization recovers, while the company’s growing exposure to data center, AI and low Earth orbit satellite applications may provide accelerating secular growth drivers at a still reasonable valuation.”
STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) was not among the 40 most popular stocks among hedge funds. According to the database, 75 hedge fund portfolios held STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE:STM) at the end of the second quarter, up from 37 in the preceding quarter. While Artisan Partners acknowledges the potential of STMicroelectronics as an investment, the firm notes that other AI‑focused stocks currently present more attractive upside with lower downside risk.
