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 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG). Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) manufactures and markets products that help physicians and healthcare providers to improve the quality of and access to minimally invasive care. The one-month return of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) was -0.32%, and its shares gained 56.39% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 19, 2025, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) stock closed at $608.48 per share with a market capitalization of $217.019 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Apart from cash, stock selection was positive overall due to solid gains from a handful of holdings in health care equipment, biotechnology, life sciences tools & services, and health care services. Stock selection in health care equipment was an 80-plus basis point tailwind to performance owing to modest gains from the Fund’s large positions in global medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific Corporation and robotic surgical system leader Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG). Intuitive’s quarterly revenue and earnings surpassed Street expectations due to strong systems placements and procedure growth. The company remains in the early stages of a new product cycle with its new da Vinci 5 system, and we continue to believe the company has a long runway for growth driven by continued adoption and expansion of robotic surgery.”
A medical team performing minimally invasive surgery with a da Vinci Surgical System.
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 95 hedge fund portfolios held Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 82 in the third quarter. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) generated $8.4 billion in revenues for the year, representing 17% growth over 2023. While we acknowledge the potential of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) 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 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) and shared the list of best medical device stocks to buy according to hedge funds. 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.