Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund had a strong performance in the quarter and generated a gain of 8.28% (Institutional Shares). The Fund beat both the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index), which declined 0.62% and the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index), which rose 6.59%, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Real Estate Fund featured stocks like American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) is a multitenant communications real estate operator. On April 24, 2024, American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) stock closed at $173.35 per share. One-month return of American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) was -12.66%, and its shares lost 16.08% of their value over the last 52 weeks. American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) has a market capitalization of $80.565 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Following a more than 30% rebound in the fourth quarter of 2023, shares of American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) lagged in the first quarter of 2024. The uncertainty around the timing and ultimate financial impact of American Tower’s India business sale, ongoing lower overall spending by wireless carriers, and higher interest rates weighed on the company’s shares. Please refer to our “Top Net Purchases” section for our rationale for acquiring additional shares.
In the first quarter, we continued to acquire additional shares of American Tower Corporation, a global operator of over 200,000 wireless towers. We believe that 2023 marked a trough in earnings growth, financing/interest rate headwinds, and valuation bottoming. Looking ahead, we are more optimistic about the company’s prospects due to its: i) accelerating growth expectations; ii) cash flow stability underpinned by core developed markets; iii) secular demand drivers such as growing mobile data usage, 5G spectrum deployment and network investment, edge computing, and connected homes and cars, which will require increased wireless bandwidth and increased spending by the mobile carriers; and iv) strong growth within CoreSite, its network-dense data center company, and optionality with that business segment as future network needs and architecture evolve.”
A wide angled view of a high-rise office building, the windows reflecting a nearby cityscape.
American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) was held by 56 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 60 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We previously discussed American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) in another article, where we shared the list of largest real estate companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
