Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund increased by 9.08% (Institutional Shares) compared to an 11.54% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and a 7.56% gain for the S&P 500 Index. The fund fell 16.90% in 2022, compared to a 6.10% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and an 18.11% decline for the S&P 500 Index. Factors like cash exposure in the up-market, adverse stock selection, and differences in sub-industry exposures led the fund to underperform in the quarter relative to its benchmark. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.
Baron Funds highlighted stocks like Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark, Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is a biopharmaceutical company. On January 30, 2023, Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) stock closed at $120.80 per share. One-month return of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) was -1.09%, and its shares lost 0.69% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) has a market capitalization of $6.889 billion.
Baron Funds made the following comment about Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“We purchased additional shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND), a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company has a platform technology called TransCon that can extend the duration of a drug’s action in the body. The company is applying its TransCon technology to drug candidates in endocrinology and oncology. In 2021, the company commercially launched Skytrofa, the first FDA-approved once-weekly product for pediatric growth hormone deficiency that has been clinically proven to be superior to currently available products. Ascendis is also developing TransCon PTH, a hormone replacement therapy for adults with hypoparathyroidism. The FDA has accepted for Priority Review the company’s New Drug Application for TransCon PTH in adult patients with hypoparathyroidism and has set a target action date of April 30, 2023. A third endocrinology pipeline drug is TransCon CNP, a potential new onceweekly growth treatment option for achondroplasia. We think these three drugs combined have the potential to generate peak sales of roughly $4 billion. Ascendis also has two early-stage oncology product candidates and management recently announced plans to enter a third therapeutic category, ophthalmology.”
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Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) at the end of the third quarter, which was 26 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in another article and shared TimesSquare Capital Management’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 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.
