Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund increased 17.6% (Institutional Shares) in the fourth quarter compared to a 14.2% gain for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and an 11.7% increase for the S&P 500 Index. For the full year, the fund appreciated 57.6% compared to 42.7% and 26.3% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund featured stocks such as Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) provides a cloud-based commerce platform. On February 22, 2024, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) stock closed at $75.03 per share. One-month return of Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) was -6.78%, and its shares gained 77.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) has a market capitalization of $96.578 billion.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund stated the following regarding Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) is a cloud-based software provider for multi-channel commerce. Shares rose 42.8% in the fourth quarter (and finished the year up 124.7%) on strong financial results with growth in gross merchandise value of 22% year-over-year, revenue growth of 25%, and non-GAAP operating margins surpassing 15% (up 1,900 bps year-over-year). The company also hosted a well-attended Investor Day in which it shared a variety of data points showcasing growing success in new segments in which it historically has been less well known, such as enterprise, B2B, and offline commerce. The company’s continuously improving product, revamped go-to-market strategy, and the lapping of the large COVID cohorts also helped the company add more merchants to its the platform in the last year than in the prior two. Existing Shopify merchants also continue to outperform the market, which supports continuous market share gains. Lastly, the company provided data on the rapid adoption of new offerings, with its emerging products category growing at a 71% CAGR since 2019. We remain shareholders due to Shopify’s strong competitive positioning, innovative culture, and long runway for growth, as it still holds less than a 2% share of the global commerce market.”
Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) was held by 68 hedge fund portfolios, down from 69 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) in another article and shared the list of best Canadian stocks to buy for 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.
