Baron Funds: “We Continue to View Spotify (SPOT) as a Long-Term Winner in Music Streaming”

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Partners Fund” third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. An increase of 5.52% was delivered by the fund’s institutional shares for the third quarter of 2021, outperforming the Russell Midcap Growth Index which declined 0.76%  for the same period. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.58% while the Morningstar Large Growth Category (the “Peer Group”) Average declined 0.07%. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Baron Partners Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) and discussed its stance on the firm.  Spotify Technology S.A. is a Stockholm, Sweden-based music streaming company with a $43.7 billion market capitalization. SPOT delivered a -27.37% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -27.78%. The stock closed at $228.54 per share on December 02, 2021.

Here is what Baron Partners Fund has to say about  Spotify Technology S.A.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Spotify Technology S.A. is a leading digital music service available in 178 international markets, offering on-demand audio streaming through paid premium subscriptions as well as a free ad-supported model. Shares were down as engagement declined while economies reopened and pandemic restrictions were lifted. We continue to view Spotify as a long-term winner in music streaming with potential to go from 158 million paying subscribers today to over 250 million in four years, driven by its scalable core music product as well as its growing library of spoken word content.”

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Based on our calculations, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. SPOT was in 48 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) delivered a -10.03% return in the past 3 months.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.