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I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with or thoughts concerning ARTFX, Artisan High Income Fund? It happened to catch my eye as I was looking at the quarterly report for Artisan International Fund (ARTIX) which we have owned for quite a while.
Hi OJ, I owned it in an IRA for a year-plus, but sold it when I decided to dump all pure HY corp exposure a few months back. I do think it's about the best thing going in the asset class, though. Looks like it's still doing ok within the category.
One thing I noticed that sorta cemented my decision to sell (for the time being) was that he seemed to jump into commodity energy with both feet, at a time I thought it was way early to be doing so. He had barely any exposure, a percent or two, and then one month suddenly it was 12%. That's the only thing in the ARTFX experience that made me remotely question the manager.
I own it. Bought during the time any Artisan fund opened was an automatic buy for me. I broke that cycle with ARTYX. I keep rotating in and out of rest of my Artisan holdings. That's basically my portfolio at Fido. I own almost all of the Artisan funds except Artisan Small Cap Value which has been closed forever, ARTZX which has sucked forever, and ARTYX which made a sucking sound for me when it opened in spite of ARTZX existing. I smelled an ART,..err... I mean a RAT. IMHO there is no need for ARTYZ. They could just have changed manager of ARTZX.
Here is my totally scientific short study regarding your question:
--- Manager: Bryan C. Krug Manager Tenure: since 3/19/2014
Funds Currently Managed
Artisan High Income Fund Advisor Shares (since 3/19/2014) Artisan High Income Fund Investor Shares (since 3/19/2014)
Funds Previously Managed Ivy High Income B Ivy High Income I Ivy High Income Y Ivy High Income E Ivy High Income Fund Class R6 Ivy High Income Fund Class A Ivy High Income C Ivy High Income R
Education BS, Miami University
This link is for the manager, Mr. Krug with several linked stories related to his move.
My basic summary: It appears that the excellent returns of the Ivy High Income funds (example: IVHIX ) were highly correlated to Mr. Krug during his time with Ivy. These excellent returns are now showing at Artisan, ARTFX; during Mr. Krug's short management period to date; while the Ivy High Income funds (since his leaving) have suffered in line with many other HY/high income funds. Briefly, Mr. Krug is not new to this investment area and began with Waddell and Reed in 2001. I have not looked backward further regarding his investment employment. It appears from returns of funds involved with Mr. Krug's management; that apparently, there are those individuals whose active management can make a difference.
Lastly, to the HY/HI sector. We have not been invested in this area for about 18 months. Management choices as to how to deal with high yield issues that are related to commodity and energy areas will likely show us who the "lucky" folks are/will be in the next year or so.
Don't forget that my Econ. degree is from Whats-A-Matter U.; so as to place properly the evaluation of my thoughts to this topic.
@MFO Members: Bryan Krug had an excellent track record as a bond manager at his previous stops Waddell & Reed and Ivy, as noted by catch22in his post. ARTFX is only a little over an year old, and so far so good. The Linkster recommends this fund should be placed on your watch list. Regards, Ted
Hey, thanks to all of you for your insights, sharing of knowledge, and your time on this. I'm thinking on reallocating some of our RPHYX into ARTFX. (Yes, I realize that they are totally different animals.) Mucho Gracias!
Hi VF- Yes, I also have a very small position in RSIVX. I'm thinking of converting that to ARTFX and then perhaps taking a part of the RPHYX and gradually switching that over. I agree with you on the risk profiles- I wouldn't switch the entire RPHYX- just part of it. Thanks again for your suggestions on this.
only 99 securities 71 issuers rated CCC 45.7% top 10 holdings: 38% (hacheewhawha!) #1 holding=6.1% (to put some context to it, the #1 hldg of PRHYX is around 1.5%, and I think you have to combine 3 securities from one issuer to reach that figure)
I've held ARTFX since inception, since I think B. Krug is damn fine. So far o.k. but I am under no illusion more drawdown may be coming and it might not be pretty. I'm moving in verrrry sloooooow. Re. E&P bonds, AndyJ's exit may prove to have been prescient; some of them are second lien bank loans with leverage covenants, but if junk goes RISK OFF is that gonna help? I dunno, probably not.
Might consider holding your horses for a few months to see how things shake out. ARTFX just paid out its CGs for the year, so at least you don't have to worry about a "big surprise" in Dec if you decide to go ahead and make the change.
p.s. if you intend to invest with Artisan directly, instead of thru a brokerage account, beware their procedures for setting up an account with designated beneficiary. It is downright byzantine!
Comments
One thing I noticed that sorta cemented my decision to sell (for the time being) was that he seemed to jump into commodity energy with both feet, at a time I thought it was way early to be doing so. He had barely any exposure, a percent or two, and then one month suddenly it was 12%. That's the only thing in the ARTFX experience that made me remotely question the manager.
Cheers -- AJ
Here is my totally scientific short study regarding your question:
--- Manager: Bryan C. Krug
Manager Tenure: since 3/19/2014
Funds Currently Managed
Artisan High Income Fund Advisor Shares (since 3/19/2014)
Artisan High Income Fund Investor Shares (since 3/19/2014)
Funds Previously Managed
Ivy High Income B
Ivy High Income I
Ivy High Income Y
Ivy High Income E
Ivy High Income Fund Class R6
Ivy High Income Fund Class A
Ivy High Income C
Ivy High Income R
Education
BS, Miami University
This link is for the manager, Mr. Krug with several linked stories related to his move.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Bryan+C.+Krug
My basic summary: It appears that the excellent returns of the Ivy High Income funds (example: IVHIX ) were highly correlated to Mr. Krug during his time with Ivy. These excellent returns are now showing at Artisan, ARTFX; during Mr. Krug's short management period to date; while the Ivy High Income funds (since his leaving) have suffered in line with many other HY/high income funds. Briefly, Mr. Krug is not new to this investment area and began with Waddell and Reed in 2001. I have not looked backward further regarding his investment employment. It appears from returns of funds involved with Mr. Krug's management; that apparently, there are those individuals whose active management can make a difference.
Lastly, to the HY/HI sector. We have not been invested in this area for about 18 months. Management choices as to how to deal with high yield issues that are related to commodity and energy areas will likely show us who the "lucky" folks are/will be in the next year or so.
Don't forget that my Econ. degree is from Whats-A-Matter U.; so as to place properly the evaluation of my thoughts to this topic.
Thanks for the discovery.
Regards,
Catch
Regards,
Ted
I'm thinking on reallocating some of our RPHYX into ARTFX. (Yes, I realize that they are totally different animals.) Mucho Gracias!
Catch- Thanks for the in-depth info!
@Ted- very nice to see you back with us.
https://www.artisanpartners.com/individual-investors/investments/credit-team/high-income-fund-artfx.html (click Data and Statistics Tab)
only 99 securities
71 issuers
rated CCC 45.7%
top 10 holdings: 38% (hacheewhawha!) #1 holding=6.1%
(to put some context to it, the #1 hldg of PRHYX is around 1.5%, and I think you have to combine 3 securities from one issuer to reach that figure)
I've held ARTFX since inception, since I think B. Krug is damn fine. So far o.k. but I am under no illusion more drawdown may be coming and it might not be pretty. I'm moving in verrrry sloooooow. Re. E&P bonds, AndyJ's exit may prove to have been prescient; some of them are second lien bank loans with leverage covenants, but if junk goes RISK OFF is that gonna help? I dunno, probably not.
Might consider holding your horses for a few months to see how things shake out. ARTFX just paid out its CGs for the year, so at least you don't have to worry about a "big surprise" in Dec if you decide to go ahead and make the change.
p.s. if you intend to invest with Artisan directly, instead of thru a brokerage account, beware their procedures for setting up an account with designated beneficiary. It is downright byzantine!