Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 7.69% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 6.96% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and an 11.69% increase for the S&P 500 Index. For the full year, the fund increased 6.42%, compared to 2.87% and 26.29% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund featured stocks such as Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a pharmaceutical company. On January 19, 2024, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stock closed at $628.58 per share. One-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 10.20%, and its shares gained 83.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) has a market capitalization of $596.715 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Stock selection was also positive in the sub-industry owing to strong gains from therapeutics-focused pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY). Lilly’s stock continued to outperform driven by strong sales of blockbuster diabetes medicine Mounjaro and ongoing enthusiasm surrounding the company’s obesity and diabetes franchises, particularly after Novo Nordisk released its SELECT trial results showing a 20% relative risk reduction in overweight patients with cardiovascular disease and no prior history of diabetes.
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells medicines in the categories of diabetes, oncology, neuroscience, and immunology, among other areas. Stock performance was strong due to strong third quarter sales of blockbuster diabetes medicine Mounjaro and ongoing enthusiasm surrounding the company’s obesity and diabetes franchises. We continue to think Lilly is well positioned to grow revenue and earnings at attractive rates through the end of the decade and beyond.
We own Eli Lilly and Company, which we believe will remain a leader in the GLP-1 medicine class with Mounjaro, Zepbound, and the company’s deep pipeline of next generation GLP-1 medicines.”
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Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is in 22nd position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 102 hedge fund portfolios held Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) at the end of third quarter which was 87 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in another article and shared the list of healthcare stock options to add to your retirement portfolio. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.
