Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Opportunity Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund outperformed the broader market and increased by 17.96% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 13.85% return for the Russell 3000 Growth Index and a 7.50% return for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Opportunity Fund highlighted stocks like Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an electric vehicle and energy generation and storage systems manufacturer. On May 9, 2023, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock closed at $169.15 per share. One-month return of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was -6.31%, and its shares lost 30.87% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) has a market capitalization of $536.121 billion.
Baron Opportunity Fund made the following comment about Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs, manufactures, and sells EVs, related software and components, and solar and energy storage products. Following a sharp decline at the end of 2022, Tesla’s stock rebounded in the first quarter of 2023 on investor expectations that Tesla will continue to grow vehicle deliveries and maintain solid gross and operating margins despite a potential recession, competition in China, and vehicle price reductions. We wrote a long piece on Tesla last quarter and refer readers back to it, because for long-term investors not much has changed over the last three months. Tesla did hold its first Investor Day in March, and several Baron analysts and portfolio managers attended. We toured the Austin Gigafactory, drove in a Cybertruck, boarded a Semi truck, and spoke with a wide swath of Tesla senior managers. During the formal presentation, Tesla highlighted, among other things: (1) its broad and deep bench of executive talent supporting CEO Elon Musk; (2) its “Master Plan 3–Sustainable Energy for All of Earth,” which featured EVs, renewable power from solar and wind, and stationary electric storage; (3) its vehicle assembly innovations, including massive casted parts (building Model Y bodies with single front and rear castings, replacing a substantial number of parts and fastening steps), a stainless steel exoskeleton (for Cybertruck), and its next-generation highly efficient “unboxed process” for its next-gen $25,000 vehicle; (4) a future permanent[1]magnet electric motor that will not require any rare earths; and (5) the massive untapped market opportunity for commercial stationary electric storage, branded Megapack, as the world steadily shifts to renewable energy. As long-term shareholders, we have witnessed Tesla exploit its innovative Model 3/Y now-global mass-market platform to increase vehicle deliveries from barely a standing start to over 1.3 million units, while achieving industry-leading margins and reinforcing its iron-clad balance sheet to almost $23 billion in cash (and effectively no recourse debt). We expect Tesla’s next-generation EV and Megapack products to have a similar impact on company results.”
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is in 28th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 91 hedge fund portfolios held Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 88 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in another article and shared the list of best fast growth stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
