Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The first quarter was difficult for the fund, as it failed to participate in the broader market rally and declined 3.69% compared to the 3.27% decline for the benchmark Russell 3000 Health Care Index and a 7.50% increase for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. On May 17, 2023, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $484.81 per share. One-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was -0.54%, and its shares gained 1.31% of their value over the last 52 weeks. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) has a market capitalization of $451.374 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund made the following comment about UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is the leading health care franchise in the U.S., with more than $350 billion in annual revenue. Following relatively strong performance in 2022, shares fell along with other managed care companies, primarily on sector rotation. Despite solid fourth quarter results and conservative initial 2023 guidance that fell within its 12% to 15% long-term earnings goal, investors stepped to the sidelines on concerns about proposed changes to the Medicare audit program, preliminary 2024 Medicare Advantage (MA) rates, and the impact of Medicaid recertification. We believe UnitedHealth is the best-positioned managed care player, with a leading franchise in MA, the market’s fastest growing segment. We expect continued strong growth and profitability, driven by positive demographic trends, effective cost management through leverage of size and scale, industry-leading technology investments, enhanced expertise in population health, and a growing portfolio of providers, all of which enables UnitedHealth to keep and effectively manage more of its health care spending in-house.”
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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 16th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 110 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 110 in the previous quarter.
We discussed UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in another article and shared the list of “great” earnings reports that Jim Cramer is talking about. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
