Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund increased 12.46% (Institutional Shares) in the full year compared to a 7.49% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index) and a 12.70% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index). The fund decreased 2.98% in the fourth quarter, outperforming 6.39% and 4.69% declines for the indexes for the same period. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Baron Real Estate Fund emphasized stocks such as Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX). Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is one of the largest alternative asset management firms specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The one-month return of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) was -11.47%, and its shares gained 22.87% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 27, 2025, Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) stock closed at $157.39 per share with a market capitalization of $192.2 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“In the most recent quarter, the shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX), the world’s largest alternative asset manager, continued to perform well due to strong quarterly business results and expectations for enduring and compelling long-term growth prospects. In the year ahead, we believe growth prospects for Blackstone should be strong as management sees meaningful opportunities in private wealth, AI, and data centers, a cyclical recovery in real estate, and additional opportunities which should help to grow fees. In addition, there are emerging green shoots that transaction activity is poised to come back strongly after several years of depressed levels. Increased transaction activity provides the ability to realize carried interest/provide clarity on valuation marks and return capital to limited partners, which feeds the “flywheel” of capital formation for additional fund vehicles.
Blackstone is the largest real estate manager in the world with an impressive investment track record. We believe Blackstone is a true “best-in-class” company. It has a premier brand, a global franchise, loyal customers, and substantial insider ownership. Blackstone is fast growing, manages its business in an asset-light manner with limited needs for capital, produces high cash-flow margins, is anchored by a recurring revenue base, and is able to return nearly 100% of its cash generated through dividends and share repurchases. Led by its exceptional CEO Stephen Schwarzman and President Jon Gray, the company attracts and retains excellent talent. We believe Blackstone is remarkably positioned to continue to increase market share in a secular growth opportunity for alternative assets.”
A cheerful investor telling their financial advisor they are ready to invest in alternative assets.
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 67 hedge fund portfolios held Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 50 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) and shared AI News updates making headlines. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 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.