Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 7.69% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 6.96% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and an 11.69% increase for the S&P 500 Index. For the full year, the fund increased 6.42%, compared to 2.87% and 26.29% returns for the indexes, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund featured stocks such as Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Piombino Dese, Italy, Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) produces and distributes products and processes for biopharma and healthcare. On January 19, 2024, Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) stock closed at $28.34 per share. One-month return of Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) was 3.66%, and its shares gained 37.51% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) has a market capitalization of $7.523 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Somewhat offsetting the above was adverse stock selection in life sciences tools & services, where the principal detractors were West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. and Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN). Stevanato sells primary glass containers for injectable drugs, including vials, syringes, and pen cartridges. The industry Stevanto caters to is benefiting from the growth of injectable medicines, an aging population, and increasing global access to medicines. Customers are also increasingly adopting higher-value solutions with tighter manufacturing specifications, specialized coatings, and/or which are sterilized and ready to fill. Collectively, this is driving double-digit revenue growth. After the company reported third quarter 2023 earnings, some investors were concerned that the order book continued to contract, which led to concerns about revenues for 2024 and beyond. We think these concerns are unfounded. Order lead times grew substantially during COVID and the resulting supply-chain constraints, and the order book contraction is a result of normalizing order patterns. The backlog is still elevated, and we expect the contraction to continue. Management has other lines of sight into customer demand, which appears as strong as ever, and we think Stevanato will grow revenues in the double digits for a number of years.”
A scientist in a laboratory observing a drug delivery system through a microscope.
Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 11 hedge fund portfolios held Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) at the end of third quarter which was 10 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Stevanato Group S.p.A. (NYSE:STVN) in another article and shared TimesSquare Capital Management’s views on the company in the previous quarter. 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.
