Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Discovery Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund (Institutional Shares) declined 7.78% underperforming the 2.92% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. The lion’s share of negative attribution and 6.52% of negative performance of the fund during the quarter were attributed to the ten worst-performing equities. The firm believes downward movements are more technically tied to macroeconomic issues and the trading environment and could quickly revert. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Discovery Fund highlighted stocks like Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is a medical device outsource manufacturer. The one-month return of Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) was 5.83%, and its shares gained 50.15% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 22, 2024, Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) stock closed at $123.62 per share with a market capitalization of $4.145 billion.
Baron Discovery Fund stated the following regarding Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“We initiated a position in Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), the largest medical device outsourcer (MDO) manufacturer. Integer helps design and manufacture components, sub-assemblies, and full devices for a range of companies, including the five largest med-tech companies. We think this is an attractive business with high barriers to entry and high switching costs. It takes a lot of time and money to design, qualify, and study new med-tech devices and components, and Integer is often specced into their customers’ devices. Compared with other MDOs, Integer has a number of differentiated capabilities (particularly in battery related technologies), the most comprehensive offering in their space, and strong relationships with its large customers. Customers prioritize speed-to-market, ability-to-scale, and reliability/quality of manufacturing. Integer performs extremely well on all these metrics. Larger customers are also trying to consolidate vendors and Integer has the most comprehensive offering available. Integer is exposed to several of the most interesting ongoing med-tech launches (including neurostimulation, pulsed field ablation, and structural heart), and we think that the company is poised to grow faster than the market given its focus on collaborating with med-tech on innovative devices. On top of its organic revenue growth, Integer continues to invest inorganically via acquisitions to augment its technological capabilities and manufacturing scale. All of this should lead to top-line growth of about 10% per year.”
A doctor using a Neuromodulation device to examine a patient’s brain activity.
Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 17 hedge fund portfolios held Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) at the end of the second quarter which was 15 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) reported sales of $436 million, a 9% year-over-year increase on a reported basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) 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 addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
