Does Bright Horizons Family Solutions (BFAM) have a Long Growth Runway?

Soumya Eswaran

Tue, May 6, 2025, 6:02 AM 3 min read

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Mid Cap Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund’s Investor Class fund ARTMX returned -7.40%, Advisor Class fund APDMX posted a return of -7.37%, and Institutional Class fund APHMX returned -7.35%, compared to a -7.12% return for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. US equities achieved solid Q4 gains, concluding a strong year. After a period of strong growth stock performance in 2023 and 2024, value stocks gained the lead in Q1 2025. In a risk-averse environment, investors shifted towards lower-volatility equities, especially in the utilities and consumer staples sectors, alongside those with higher dividend yields. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Mid Cap Fund highlighted stocks such as Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM). Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM), with a market capitalization of $7.277 billion, provides early education and childcare, back-up care, educational advisory, and other workplace solutions services. The one-month return of The Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM) was 6.12%, and its shares gained 11.45% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 5, 2025, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM) stock closed at $126.82 per share.

Artisan Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

"Notable adds in the quarter included DoorDash, CCC Intelligent Solutions and Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE:BFAM). Bright Horizons is a leading provider of childcare solutions that help employers recruit and retain talent as well as improve employee productivity, while helping families better address work/life challenges. The company primarily provides services through multi-year contracts with employers who provide childcare, early education and other dependent care benefits to employees. Its full service offerings are a combination of employer-based and community-based centers and the company’s “back up care” program—a vast network of vetted in-center or in-home providers, which allows for flexible child coverage appealing to hybrid working situations. We believe its full-service center business is underutilized and underearning versus history, but this should change as enrollments increase due to back-to-office mandates. And we believe Bright Horizon’s “back up care” business, which represents more than 60% of its earnings, has a long growth runway. Given continued evidence of back-to-office trends, we added to the position."