Artisan Focus Fund on The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Thesis
Goldman Sachs is a key expression of Artisan's new Evolving Financials theme. The fund expects recovering capital-markets activity to combine with a potentially friendlier regulatory environment that could unlock excess capital, increase buybacks, improve lending activity and lift returns on equity. Because many financial institutions have already improved efficiency and capital discipline, Artisan sees the possibility of cyclical recovery and structural improvement occurring together.
“The result may be a rare setup where cyclical recovery and structural improvements are occurring simultaneously.”
Key risks
- Capital-markets activity may fail to recover as expected
- The regulatory environment may not become as favorable as expected