A Wall Street Transcript Interview with James D. Hamel, CFA, a Managing Director of Artisan Partners and a Portfolio Manager on the Growth Team: Pursuing Global Growth Equities

Wall Street Transcript

67 WALL STREET, New York - March 18, 2014 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Investing Strategies Report. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with highly experienced Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Secular Growth Themes - Small Cap Investing - Upside in Small-Cap Stocks - Value Investment - Balanced Investment Approach - Global Growth Equities - All-Cap Investing - Value and Growth Investing

Companies include: Sempra Energy (SRE), IHS Inc. (IHS), FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS), eBay Inc. (EBAY), Google Inc. (GOOG), Apple Inc. (AAPL), Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) and many others.

In the following excerpt from the Investing Strategies Report, an experienced growth stock portfolio manager discusses his investing methodology and top stock picks.

TWST: Could you please begin with an overview of Artisan Global Opportunities and the Growth Team, with a view to its underlying investment philosophy?

Mr. Hamel: These comments relate to all of the portfolios that my team, the Artisan Partners Growth Team, is responsible for, which are the small-cap growth, midcap growth and the global opportunities portfolios. From a high level, we believe stocks follow profits. We consider ourselves profit-cycle hunters. When we think about investing our clients' dollars, we want to expose them to accelerating profit cycles by finding growth wherever it occurs.

That said, we also recognize that we operate in the public equities marketplace. We don't have access to all of the information - there is an inherent amount of risk in public equity investments. So our philosophy is built around exposure to growth, but with a keen eye on risk management.

TWST: Can we take a closer look specifically at Global Opportunities, with a view to its structure?

Mr. Hamel: The Global Opportunities portfolio has all of the same characteristics as the other two portfolios we manage with a few exceptions on the construction side. First, it's a focused, concentrated equity portfolio; the top 20 securities in the portfolio represent approximately 65% of the capital in most periods, but generally between 60% and 70%. In terms of the number of securities, we generally have a range between 30 and 50.

Second, we view the opportunity set as truly global. We will go wherever growth occurs globally. The portfolio today is roughly 50/50 with respect to inside the U.S. and outside the U.S., as it has been over the last handful of years.

Third, it is truly an all-cap portfolio...

For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.