Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 6.56% was delivered by the fund’s institutional shares for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 15.84% for the year. This exceeded the Fund’s primary benchmark, the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the “Benchmark”), which gained 0.01%. The S&P 500 Index, which measures the performance of publicly-traded large-cap U.S. companies, gained 11.03% during the period. For the full year, the Fund gained 20.15%, meaningfully exceeding its Benchmark, which gained 2.83%. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Baron Growth Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Mirion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MIR) and discussed its stance on the firm. Mirion Technologies, Inc. is an Atlanta, Georgia-based nuclear measurement and detection systems provider with a $1.7 billion market capitalization. MIR delivered a -17.57% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -28.50%. The stock closed at $8.63 per share on February 14, 2022.
Here is what Baron Growth Fund has to say about Mirion Technologies, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“This quarter, the Fund initiated a position in Mirion Technologies, Inc., a leader in ionizing radiation detection and measurement technologies to the medical, laboratory, and nuclear power industries. The business consists of a portfolio of niche, mission-critical products that represent a small portion of a project’s costs but can cause extensive collateral damage if they fail. Products include dosimeters that monitor radiation levels of medical professionals, quality assurance equipment and software for nuclear medicine treatments, and instrumentation and equipment that is core to the construction, operation, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
We think that Mirion has the potential to be a compelling industrial compounder. The company is already the largest player in over 80% of its end markets, and in aggregate is approximately 3.5 times larger than its nearest competitor. We estimate that Mirion’s end markets should grow at 5% to 6% annually, driven by favorable secular trends and a consistent replacement cycle. We expect Mirion to grow in line with or ahead of its end markets on an organic basis, as it leverages its scale advantage to take modest market share. Organic growth should be complemented by Mirion’s successful acquisition strategy, driving aggregate growth into the doubledigit range. In addition, we believe the company has an opportunity to expand markets by 500 bps-plus of margin over time through a favorable mix shift, higher utilization rates, and ongoing M&A synergy realization.
We believe that Mirion boasts a capable and accomplished senior management team. CEO Tom Logan has been with the company since 2005 and has led the strategy that has grown Mirion’s revenues from $123 million at inception to approximately $700 million currently. The new chairman of Mirion, Larry Kingsley, has a strong history of shareholder value creation as the former CEO of industrial technology leaders Pall Corporation and IDEX Corporation. We think his expertise will be well utilized as Mirion embarks on its next stage of growth.”
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Our calculations show that Mirion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MIR) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Mirion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MIR) delivered a -24.83% return in the past 3 months. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.