Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron FinTech Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund rose 6.33% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 3.60% gain for the FactSet Global FinTech Index (Benchmark) and a 10.56% gain for the S&P 500 index. The major market indexes touched an all-time high in the quarter driven by robust economic data and relatively strong corporate earnings. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron FinTech Fund highlighted stocks like The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR), with a market capitalization of $119.428 billion, is an insurance holding company. The one-month return of The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) was -1.98%, and its shares gained 58.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 24, 2024, The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) stock closed at $203.91 per share.
Baron FinTech Fund stated the following regarding The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Shares of insurer The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) outperformed during the quarter after the company reported strong financial results. Earnings for the first two months of the year more than doubled from the same period a year ago due to a significant improvement in underwriting margins combined with accelerating policy growth. Last year, the company pulled back on growth while it applied for large rate increases from state regulators to offset higher inflation. Having achieved adequate rates in most states, management now plans to increase advertising to drive faster policy growth. Competitors are also raising their rates, which should prompt more consumer shopping and faster market share gains for Progressive while supporting healthy margins.”
A team of accountants in a boardroom, discussing strategic moves of an insurance company.
The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 85 hedge fund portfolios held The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) at the end of the first quarter which was 79 in the previous quarter.
In another article, we discussed The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) and shared the list of best Jim Cramer stocks to buy. The Progressive Corporation (NYSE:PGR) was the top contributor of The London Company Large Cap Strategy in the 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.
If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as Microsoft but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
