Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Partners Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The first quarter of 2024 was disappointing for the fund. It declined 9.01% (institutional Shares) in the quarter trailing its primary benchmark, the Russell Midcap Growth Index (the Index), and the large-cap S&P 500 Index, which returned 9.50% and 10.56%, respectively. Over the last three years, the Fund has not advanced much. However, the Fund continues to have outstanding absolute and relative performance over the long run. Its annualized returns over the past 5, 10, and 15 years are 25.16%, 17.37%, and 20.45%, respectively, compared to the index’s annualized returns of 11.82%, 11.35%, and 15.64%, respectively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Partners Fund highlighted stocks like Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems. Tesla, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) one-month return was -3.62%, and its shares lost 18.17% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 31, 2024, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock closed at $178.10 per share with a market capitalization of $567.997 billion.
Baron Partners Fund stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“The vast majority of the Fund’s underperformance this quarter stemmed from the Fund’s 10-year investment in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). Tesla’s shares fell 29.3% during the period and detracted 13.41% from the Fund’s first quarter results. Although Tesla has contributed importantly to the Fund’s performance since 2014, on occasion it has detracted from quarterly performance. In previous instances when Tesla shares have underperformed during a discrete period, they have shortly afterwards reflected the strong growth of the underlying business and the stock has appreciated considerably. We believe that will be the case again, although cannot guarantee it.
A significant decline also occurred at the end of 2022. In that instance, investors had become concerned about a host of external factors. Investors believed the company founder, visionary, and CEO Elon Musk was distracted by his acquisition of Twitter. They also believed a weak Chinese economy emerging from COVID and U.S. government policies would curtail the purchases of Tesla vehicles. These fears proved to be overblown. As the company achieved milestones in the succeeding year, the stock subsequently doubled over the next 12 months…” (Click here to read the full text)
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Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 74 hedge fund portfolios held Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) at the end of the first quarter which was 82 in the previous quarter.
In the first quarter, Tesla, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) revenue fell by -8.70% compared to the same period last year and the company reported a negative free cash flow of $2.5 billion in the quarter. (See the details here)
In another article, we discussed Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and shared Aristotle Atlantic Partners’ views on the company. Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund also commented about Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its first quarter 2024. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.
