Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its third-quarter 2026 investor letter for the Artisan Developing World Fund, reporting a quarter in which its portfolio made progress while its benchmark struggled to find its footing. The fund’s Investor Class returned 3.50% in the three months ended September 30, outperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets Index’s 0.37% decline. Over the longer stretch, from June 30, 2015, through September 30, 2026, the fund delivered a 172.0% cumulative return, compared with 128.8% for the index. Those figures provide a reminder that compounding rewards patience, even when the headlines seem determined to test it.
There was plenty of testing during the quarter. Heightened Middle Eastern conflict added inflation pressure, while long-dated government bonds sold off across the United States, Japan, and Europe. Korean equities suffered a sharp decline before recovering some ground, while Brazil’s market rose 8.18%, supplying a welcome patch of green. The letter also highlighted India’s economic resilience, pointing to reforms, foreign currency initiatives, and growing consumer wealth despite ongoing challenges. Emerging markets, as usual, declined to behave like one tidy investment category.
Over the fund’s history, a relatively small group of outsized winners—including NVIDIA, MercadoLibre, Sea, Visa, and CrowdStrike—has contributed substantially to cumulative returns. Finding those businesses is one challenge; staying invested long enough to benefit from their growth is another, especially when market volatility starts offering unsolicited advice. Artisan’s approach seeks to preserve that long-term compounding opportunity while diversifying across holdings with different return patterns, aiming to make the portfolio more resilient through changing conditions. Readers can also explore the fund’s top five holdings for a closer look at its leading portfolio positions in 2026.
A copy of the Artisan Developing World Fund’s Q3 2026 investor letter can be downloaded here.
