Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity Fund
Q3 2025 update
Source for all information: Artemis as at 30 September 2025, unless otherwise stated.
Summary
• Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity outperformed during the quarter, returning 14.1% compared with 9.5% from the MSCI AC World index
• The fund is up 22.5% year-to-date compared with 10.2% from the MSCI AC World index and is in the top five funds in its peer group over this time
• Contributors included CMOC (mining), China Hongqiao (metals) and Elite Material (specialty materials)
• Detractors included Qfin (consumer finance), Gulfport Energy (oil & gas) and an underweight position in Apple
• Global markets continued their recovery post-Liberation Day
Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity Fund: Key financial metrics
| P/E | Return on equity (ROE) | Analyst revisions | Dividend yield | |
| Fund | 11.9 | 16.2% | 4.0% | 2.9% |
| Benchmark | 19.6 | 14.9% | 2.3% | 1.8% |
| Relative | -39% | +1.3 percentage points | +1.7 percentage points | +1.1 percentage points |
Source: Artemis, Bloomberg, MSCI as at 30 September 2025. RoE is a blend of three-year trailing and two-year forward figures.
Review of the quarter to 30 September 2025
The summer months, while still volatile from a news flow perspective, encompassed a more benign period in global equities. Markets continued their recovery from the lows experienced post ‘Liberation Day’ with a remarkable lack of volatility. Concerns did emerge around labour weakness in the US, politics in Europe and the likely impact of tariffs, but the markets took these in their stride.
Looking at the broader market, it was interesting to see factor performance across the various different regions. US growth dominated as enthusiasm around AI reached fever pitch, with staggering deals between the world’s largest companies being announced on an almost weekly basis. At the time of writing, OpenAI has signed a chips deal with AMD, aiming for a 10% stake in the latter company. It seems the more these companies spend, the greater certainty the market has in their future prospects, even though evidence suggests massive increases in capex tend to dampen forward returns.
Factor performance
| Q3 return (%) | |
| SmartGARP Global | 14.1 |
| US Growth | 14.1 |
| EM Growth | 13.6 |
| ACWI Growth | 11.8 |
| EM Value | 9.6 |
| ACWI | 9.5 |
| ACWI Value | 7.0 |
| EU Value | 6.8 |
| US Value | 5.7 |
| EU Growth | 4.0 |
Source: Bloomberg, MSCI indices Q3 2025 performance
The laggards were on the value end of the spectrum: emerging market value held up best, with Europe lagging after a strong period and US value continuing to look more like a value trap (with earnings and share price underperformance) than an opportunity.
Performance
In an environment of concentrated leadership in the US and value underperforming, Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity has delivered returns in line with US growth and ahead of the broader market. It made 14.1% during the quarter, compared with 9.5% from its MSCI AC World index benchmark and 6.8% from its IA Global sector.
Although we talk about sector, country and factor exposures, at its core SmartGARP is a powerful stock-selection tool that focuses on the drivers of returns. Our fund is not just a value strategy, but combines the best of both value and growth investing, allowing it to perform in a range of market environments.
| Three months | Six months | One year | Three years | Five years | |
| Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity | 14.1% | 24.2% | 31.0% | 59.0% | 107.8% |
| MSCI AC World NR | 9.5% | 15.1% | 16.8% | 54.8% | 81.2% |
| IA Global average | 6.8% | 12.4% | 11.0% | 38.8% | 56.7% |
Past performance is not a guide to the future. Source: Lipper Limited/Artemis 30 September 2025 for class I accumulation GBP. All figures show total returns with dividends and/or income reinvested, net of all charges. Performance does not take account of any costs incurred when investors buy or sell the fund. Returns may vary as a result of currency fluctuations if the investor's currency is different to that of the class. Classes may have charges or a hedging approach different from those in the IA sector benchmark.
Contributors/detractors
At a country level, exposure within Asia across China, Taiwan and Japan was particularly additive, as well as stock selection within the US. From a sector perspective, materials proved most additive, in particular holdings in CMOC (cobalt), Elite Material (copper laminates), China Hongqiao (steel) and Barrick Mining (gold). Outside of materials, stock selection made a positive contribution across technology (Alphabet), healthcare (Halozyme Therapeutics), financials (Banco Bilbao) and consumer discretionary (Alibaba).
In terms of detractors, there is not a huge amount to note. Energy was our weakest sector with our exposure to Gulfport Energy and Expand Energy costing the fund 50bps in relative performance. Qfin (financial services) was our largest individual detractor.
Activity
In terms of changes over the quarter, it was more a case of adjusting exposure within sectors than any big allocation shifts.
We bought two new companies:
• Yangzijang Shipbuilding, which is trading on a 60% discount to the market but is growing faster
• Barrick Mining, an under-owned and cheap gold miner which is receiving positive revisions and demonstrating share price momentum
We exited the following positions during the quarter:
• Steel Dynamics which is cheap, but earnings are starting to fade relative to the sector and index, while there are other opportunities within basic resources
• Bank of Communications, a China-based financial that is extremely cheap (it is trading at about a third of the market multiple) but is starting to look like a value trap with earnings trending lower on a relative basis
• Babcock International, a defence company that has performed well, but its valuation is now less attractive relative to its growth profile
This leaves positioning largely unchanged. At a regional level, we remain most overweight emerging markets and Europe and most underweight the US. At a sector level, basic resources has become our largest overweight followed by banks and industrial goods, with our most pronounced underweights in technology and financial services. The fund continues to trade at a substantial discount to the market while demonstrating above-market quality and growth, and is delivering a healthy income premium through dividends and share buybacks.
The case for Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity
• Value and quality (with income)
• Low correlation to US exposure
• Tried-and-tested process
Our exposure to undervalued companies growing faster than their peers and our low correlation to the US make the fund stand out compared with its peer group, in our view.
There is a perception that high quality comes at a cost and low valuations imply poor quality. Our systematic process does not treat these as mutually exclusive traits: we want low valuations with above-market quality and growth.
Correlation matrix
A major question that investors are grappling with is where to go within global equities to diversify exposure. We believe our fund offers an attractive solution that is complementary. Its differentiated exposure across regions, countries and sectors is an outcome of our SmartGARP process and evidence suggests forward returns from here should be attractive.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1. Artemis SmartGARP Glb Eq I Acc GBP | 1.00 | |||||
| 2. MSCI ACWI NR USD | 0.81 | 1.00 | ||||
| 3. S&P 500 NR USD | 0.70 | 0.96 | 1.00 | |||
| 4. MSCI Emerging Markets NR USD | 0.74 | 0.73 | 0.57 | 1.00 | ||
| 5. MSCI Europe NR USD | 0.79 | 0.82 | 0.67 | 0.65 | 1.00 | |
| 6. MSCI Japan NR USD | 0.67 | 0.65 | 0.52 | 0.60 | 0.59 | 1.00 |
Source: Morningstar, 30 September 2025, five-year correlation, weekly returns
Notes and references
Benchmarks: MSCI AC World NR; A widely-used indicator of the performance of global stockmarkets, in which the fund invests. IA Global NR; A group of other asset managers’ funds that invest in similar asset types as this fund, collated by the Investment Association. These benchmarks act as ‘comparator benchmarks’ against which the fund’s performance can be compared. Management of the fund is not restricted by these benchmarks.
FOR PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS AND/OR QUALIFIED INVESTORS AND/OR FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH OR BY PRIVATE INVESTORS.
CAPITAL AT RISK. All financial investments involve taking risk and the value of your investment may go down as well as up. This means your investment is not guaranteed and you may not get back as much as you put in. Any income from the investment is also likely to vary and cannot be guaranteed.
This is a marketing communication. Before making any final investment decisions, and to understand the investment risks involved, refer to the fund prospectus (or in the case of investment trusts, Investor Disclosure Document and Articles of Association), available in English, and KIID/KID, available in English and in your local language depending on local country registration, available in the literature library.
Risks specific to Artemis SmartGARP Global Equity Fund
- Market volatility risk The value of the fund and any income from it can fall or rise because of movements in stockmarkets, currencies and interest rates, each of which can move irrationally and be affected unpredictably by diverse factors, including political and economic events.
- Currency risk The fund’s assets may be priced in currencies other than the fund base currency. Changes in currency exchange rates can therefore affect the fund's value.
- Charges from capital risk Where charges are taken wholly or partly out of a fund's capital, distributable income may be increased at the expense of capital, which may constrain or erode capital growth.
- Emerging markets risk Compared to more established economies, investments in emerging markets may be subject to greater volatility due to differences in generally accepted accounting principles, less governed standards or from economic or political instability. Under certain market conditions assets may be difficult to sell.
Important information
The intention of Artemis’ ‘investment insights’ articles is to present objective news, information, data and guidance on finance topics drawn from a diverse collection of sources. Content is not intended to provide tax, legal, insurance or investment advice and should not be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any security or investment by Artemis or any third-party. Potential investors should consider the need for independent financial advice. Any research or analysis has been procured by Artemis for its own use and may be acted on in that connection. The contents of articles are based on sources of information believed to be reliable; however, save to the extent required by applicable law or regulations, no guarantee, warranty or representation is given as to its accuracy or completeness. Any forward-looking statements are based on Artemis’ current opinions, expectations and projections. Articles are provided to you only incidentally, and any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. The source for all data is Artemis, unless stated otherwise. The value of an investment, and any income from it, can fall as well as rise as a result of market and currency fluctuations and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
