Artisan Investments increases stake in Philips to 10%, regulatory filings show

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – U.S. asset manager Artisan Investments raised its stake in Philips to 10%, sending shares in the medical technology group higher on Wednesday, a week after the Dutch company’s largest shareholder also increased its holding.

At 10:45 GMT, Philips shares were up 1.66% at 23.90 euros, outperforming Dutch stock market blue chip AEX (+1.05%) as well as the Stoxx Europe 600 healthcare index (-0.1%).

Following the increase in its stake, Artisan Investments now owns 94.13 million Philips shares, representing about 10% of the company, according to a previously published regulatory filing.

“Artisan has held a stake of over 9% in Philips for a long time and recently increased its stake to 10% following our Q1 results. We see this as a signal of confidence in our strategy and plan,” a Philips spokesman told Reuters.

Artisan Investments is now the second-largest shareholder in Philips, after Exor, the investment company of the Italian Agnelli family, which increased its stake to 17.51% last week.

Philips said on April 29 that its first-quarter profit was better than expected, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITA) rising 8% to 388 million euros (417.22 million dollars).

On the same day, the company also announced a smaller-than-expected settlement to resolve claims related to recalled breathing devices in the U.S.

(1$ = 0.9300 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Louise Heavens and Anil D’Silva)