Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Discovery Fund” first quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. In what turned out to be a challenging first quarter, Baron Discovery Fund (the “Fund”) decreased 16.30% (Institutional Shares), which was 3.67% below the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the “Benchmark”). Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Baron Discovery Fund mentioned Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2014, Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) is a California-based digital manufacturing company with a $301.5 million market capitalization. Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) delivered a -79.00% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -83.65%. The stock closed at $1.64 per share on June 14, 2022.
Here is what Baron Discovery Fund has to say about Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“Shares of Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD), which provides hardware and software to enable 3D metal printing, rose during the quarter. Shares rallied after the company reported a solid quarter and continued to deliver on its backlog and revenue growth projections in its early stages as a public company. Velo3D’s proprietary metal parts printing technology unlocks a large addressable market previously inaccessible by 3D printing as it enables printing without the need for internal structural supports. This is unique to Velo3D and is a major competitive advantage in our opinion. The technology lowers the cost and processing time to print parts and eliminates the need to “design for additive” which entails changing the optimal structure of a part so it works with a 3D printer. Because of the design flexibility provided by Velo3D’s solution, companies can 3D print complex metal parts like rocket engines or heat exchangers, where in the past they would have to use traditional casting or machining (or else have a compromised 3D printed part). Because 3D printing is “monolithic” (it prints an entire complex part at once), it can combine multiple parts into one, saving cost, weight, and design complexity. For this reason, Velo3D’s solution is used by some well-known customers in the aerospace, defense, and energy industries. We believe the company’s unique technology will drive strong future growth especially as it begins to sell its larger and faster Sapphire XC system in 2022 in volume.”
Our calculations show that Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) was in 21 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to 21 funds in the previous quarter. Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) delivered a -76.70% return in the past 3 months.
In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE:VLD) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
