Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund declined 2.55% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 1.02% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and a 3.22% gain for the Russell 3000 Index (the Index). The underperformance in the quarter was due to active sub-industry/market cap weights. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) is a biopharmaceutical company. The one-month return of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) was 4.99%, and its shares gained 17.00% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 1, 2024, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) stock closed at $81.20 per share with a market capitalization of $251.764 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Performance in pharmaceuticals and health care distributors was bolstered by solid gains from AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) and McKesson Corporation, respectively. AstraZeneca is a global biopharmaceutical company with a focus on three main therapy areas based on its core competencies: oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and respiratory illnesses. AstraZeneca’s shares increased given incremental positive news flow (LAURA, ADRIATIC, and DESTINY-Breast06 clinical trials) surrounding the oncology franchise. The company also published long-term guidance for the first time, projecting $80 billion in revenue by 2030, or 75% higher than 2023’s $45.8 billion. This projection implies an annual growth rate of 8% over seven years, compared with the 5% to 7% targets set by GSK and Johnson & Johnson and the 5% target set by Novartis.”
A pharmacy worker distributing prescription medicines to patientsreceiving treatment for oncology, cardiovascular, renal, metabolism and respiratory diseases.
AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 46 hedge fund portfolios held AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) at the end of the first quarter which was 48 in the previous quarter. In the first half of 2024, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) experienced an 8% increase in total revenue, fueled by robust demand. Also, AZN generated nearly $13 billion in revenue in the second quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) 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 AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) and shared the list of best FTSE dividend stocks. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
