Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. The Fund performed roughly in line with the Benchmark, during a challenging quarter for the larger health care industry. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund declined 9.58% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 9.75% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and a 2.63% gain for the Russell 3000 Index (the Index). For the full year 2024, the fund appreciated 1.55% compared to 3.48% and 23.81% gains for the indexes. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Baron Health Care Fund emphasized stocks such as Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) offers life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services. The one-month return of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) was -8.96%, and its shares lost 5.38% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 18, 2025, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) stock closed at $523.09 per share with a market capitalization of $200.082 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is a life sciences company that offers instruments/consumables for research, tools for bioproduction, specialty diagnostics, and contract research and manufacturing services. Shares fell on underwhelming quarterly results marked by cautious commentary around China, biopharmaceutical project progression, and equipment purchases. The election of Trump and his selection of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head Health and Human Services also pressured shares as they introduced an element of uncertainty into health care regulation and life science funding. We retain conviction as Thermo Fisher is dominant across multiple end markets and its scale gives it resilience. Once the macro environment normalizes, we expect an organic growth profile in the high single-digit range along with double-digit EPS growth.”
A workstation in a research lab stocked with laboratory products and services.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is in 26th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 98 hedge fund portfolios held Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) at the end of the third quarter which was 108 in the previous quarter. In Q4 2024, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s (NYSE:TMO) revenue grew 5% year-over-year to $11.4 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) 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 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) and shared the list of best manufacturing stocks to buy. 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.