Baron Funds, an investment management firm, released its “Baron Durable Advantage Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 10.9% (Institutional Shares) in the first quarter compared to a 10.6% return for the Fund’s benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The strong US economy led the fund’s quarterly gains. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Durable Advantage Fund highlighted stocks like S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) offers credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity, and automotive markets. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) one-month return was 0.41%, and its shares gained 13.07% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 31, 2024, S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) stock closed at $427.51 per share with a market capitalization of $133.768 billion.
Baron Durable Advantage Fund stated the following regarding S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Shares of rating agency and data provider S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) declined 3.1% during the quarter after the company provided financial guidance that missed Street expectations. While S&P guided to solid organic revenue growth of 7% to 9% and EPS growth of 9% to 11%, projected margin expansion fell short of investor estimates, which underestimated the correlation between improving top-line trends and variable employee comp (which is rising as a result). We are not concerned with this short-term dynamic that is the outcome of improving business fundamentals. S&P reported solid results for the most recent quarter, with 11% organic revenue growth, 23% EPS growth, and broad-based strength across the company’s business segments. Ratings growth was especially robust as debt issuance rebounded amid improving market conditions. Positive momentum has continued into 2024, with 66% issuance growth in January and February. We continue to own the stock due to the company’s durable growth characteristics and significant competitive advantages.”
A group of analysts studying data on a large monitor.
S&P Global Inc.’s (NYSE:SPGI) trailing 12month revenue is $12.83 billion and its year over year quarterly revenue growth rate is 10.50%. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 97 hedge fund portfolios held S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) at the end of the first quarter which was 82 in the previous quarter.
In another article, we discussed S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) and shared the list of best large-cap stocks to buy in 2024 according to billionaire Dan Loeb. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) was the top contributor of Baron FinTech Fund in the previous quarter. Also, S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) detracted from Aristotle Atlantic Focus Growth Strategy’s portfolio performance in the first quarter 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as Microsoft but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
