Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund rose 7.07% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 2.39% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the “REIT Index”) and a 4.73% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the “MSCI Real Estate Index”). The firm is optimistic about the prospects for the stock market, public real estate securities, and the fund. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Real Estate Fund highlighted stocks like Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) owns and operates resorts in Macao and Singapore. On June 27, 2023, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) stock closed at $58.53 per share. One-month return of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) was 6.17%, and its shares gained 74.14% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) has a market capitalization of $44.733 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund made the following comment about Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in its first quarter 2023 investor letter:
“In the first quarter of 2023, we re-acquired shares in Macau-centric casino gaming companies Wynn Resorts, Limited and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) with the following considerations in mind:
Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through mid-2022, the shares of Wynn and Las Vegas Sands significantly underperformed the share price performance of other U.S.-centric casino gaming and lodging companies due in large part to extremely limited travel mobility to Macau during China’s Zero-COVID policy. Just as business activity and the shares of U.S.-centric casino gaming companies rebounded sharply once people felt comfortable to travel to Las Vegas and other U.S. regional gaming markets, we have felt that Macau business activity and the shares of Macau-centric casino gaming companies would follow in the footsteps of Las Vegas-centric and other U.S. gaming and lodging companies and inflect positively once people were permitted to travel to Macau more freely.
China recently abandoned it’s Zero-COVID policy and removed travel restrictions in January 2023. We now believe both Wynn and Las Vegas Sands are well positioned to capitalize on China’s reopening.
For Las Vegas Sands, we believe additional drivers for future value creation beyond a re-emergence in Macau business activity include: (i) our expectation for a continued positive inflection in visitation and cash flow at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore; (ii) Las Vegas Sands’ plans to invest $4.5 billion in Macau and Singapore in the next 10 years; (iii) the company’s plans to pursue a New York casino and its prioritization of Texas as a new market; and (iv) the possibility that Las Vegas Sands reinstates its dividend in the next few years…” (Click here to read the full text)
Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 50 hedge fund portfolios held Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) at the end of first quarter 2023 which was 57 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in another article and shared the list of top entertainment brands in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
