Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Partners Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund rose modestly in the second quarter and exceeded its primary benchmark, the Russell Midcap Growth Index. The Fund rose 1.02% (institutional Shares) in the quarter and the index declined 3.21%. The fund owns competitively advantaged, well-managed, principally publicly owned, growth businesses. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to determine its best picks for 2024.
Baron Partners Fund highlighted stocks like IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) develops, manufactures, and distributes products primarily for the companion animal veterinary, livestock and poultry, dairy, and water testing markets. The one-month return of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) was -3.92%, and its shares lost 5.78% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 12, 2024, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) stock closed at $479.93 per share with a market capitalization of $39.501 billion.
Baron Partners Fund stated the following regarding IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Shares of veterinary diagnostics leader IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) detracted from performance. Foot traffic to veterinary clinics in the U.S. remains uneven, which will modestly hamper aggregate revenue growth. Despite this, IDEXX’s excellent execution has enabled the company to continue to deliver robust financial results. We believe IDEXX’s competitive trends are outstanding, and we expect new proprietary innovations and field sales force expansion to be meaningful contributors to growth in 2024. We see increasing evidence that long-term secular trends around pet ownership and pet care spending have been structurally accelerated, which should help support IDEXX’s long-term growth rate.”
A veterinarian in a veterinary clinic examining a companion animal.
IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) at the end of the first quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) delivered solid organic revenue growth and strong comparable profit gains. The overall revenues increased by 7% organically. While we acknowledge the potential of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) 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 IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) and shared ClearBridge Growth Strategy’s views on the company. 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.
