Here’s Why Parnassus Growth Equity Fund Decided to Sell AstraZeneca PLC (AZN)

Parnassus Investments, an investment management company, released the “Parnassus Growth Equity Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the Fund (Investor Shares) returned 4.85% (net of fees) underperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 7.07% gain. For the year, the fund returned 26.85% compared to Russell 1000 Growth’s 33.36% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Parnassus Growth Equity Fund emphasized stocks such as AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN). AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and manufacturers prescription medicine.  The one-month return of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) was 2.36%, and its shares gained 15.30% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 18, 2025, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) stock closed at $76.32 per share with a market capitalization of $238.425 billion.

Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We sold two Health Care positions during the quarter, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) and insurer UnitedHealth Group. AstraZeneca is under investigation concerning the company’s leadership in China, which increases the range of expected outcomes for the stock.

AstraZeneca’s management team and research and development capabilities are strong, but we grew concerned about ongoing investigations concerning the company’s leadership in China. We decided to sell in favor of more attractive opportunities in the biotechnology space.”

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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 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 42 in the previous 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 European stocks to buy according to billionaires. 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.