Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” second quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 9.22% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 3.44% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and an 8.74% gain for the S&P 500 Index. Since its inception, on April 30, 2018, the fund gained 13.58% on an annualized basis, compared to the benchmark’s 10.85% gain and the S&P 500 Index’s 12.54% return. Favorable stock selection led the fund to outperform in the quarter. Investments in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare equipment accounted for most of the relative gains of the fund in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) is a cloud-based software provider for the life sciences industry. On July 24, 2023, Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) stock closed at $196.98 per share. One-month return of Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) was -1.18%, and its shares lost 6.90% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) has a market capitalization of $32.718 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund made the following comment about Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“We re-established a position in Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV), a prior holding in the Fund and a longtime holding in other Baron Funds. Veeva is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. Veeva’s products aim to help life sciences companies develop and bring products to market faster and more efficiently, market and sell more effectively, and maintain compliance with government regulations. The company’s customers include some of the largest global biopharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Merck. Veeva is a founder-led business with a unique culture and has a strong track record of developing and launching new innovative products. The business has attractive financial characteristics, including high margins and strong free-cash-flow generation. In recent quarters, the business has faced some industry-wide headwinds, including funding pressure on smaller biotechnology companies and sales force headcount reductions by large biopharmaceutical customers. We think these headwinds are temporary and as they fade, revenue and free-cash-flow growth will accelerate. Management estimates the company’s total addressable market is $13 billion and expanding, and we see a long runway for continued growth.”
Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 38 hedge fund portfolios held Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) at the end of first quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) in another article and shared the list of stocks receiving downgrades from analysts. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
