Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Asset Fund” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The market rally that was driven by technology this year came to a halt in the third quarter. Against this backdrop, the Baron Asset Fund declined 4.42% (Institutional Shares) in the third quarter outperforming the Russell Midcap Growth Index’s -5.22% return. Positive stock selection and tailwinds from its style biases drove the outperformance in the quarter. The Fund’s underexposure to higher beta stocks, which performed poorly during the market reversal was another notable factor. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Asset Fund highlighted stocks like IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in the third quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Westbrook, Maine, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) engages in the development and manufacturing of products and services for animal veterinary, livestock and poultry, dairy, and water testing. On November 10, 2023, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) stock closed at $428.73 per share. One-month return of IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) was 0.60%, and its shares lost 2.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) has a market capitalization of $35.607 billion.
Baron Asset Fund made the following comment about IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“Shares of veterinary diagnostics leader IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) detracted from performance during the quarter. Investors remain nervous about the month-to-month fluctuations in visits to veterinary clinics. Competitor Zoetis recently indicated that foot traffic to domestic clinics remained tepid, putting downward pressure on its near-term financial results. We retain conviction in IDEXX’s long-term opportunity. The company’s competitive position remains outstanding. We expect new proprietary product innovations and field sales force expansion to be meaningful contributors to growth in 2024. We see increasing evidence that secular trends around pet ownership and pet care spending have been structurally accelerated, which should help support IDEXX’s growth rate over the long term.”
A veterinarian in a veterinary clinic examining a companion animal.
IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) at the end of second quarter which was 47 in the previous quarter.
We discussed IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) in another article and shared the list of top animal health companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.
