Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund increased 12.46% (Institutional Shares) in the full year compared to a 7.49% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index) and a 12.70% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index). The fund decreased 2.98% in the fourth quarter, outperforming 6.39% and 4.69% declines for the indexes for the same period. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Baron Real Estate Fund emphasized stocks such as CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE). CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) is a commercial real estate services and investment company. The one-month return of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) was -2.74%, and its shares gained 53.10% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 26, 2025, CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) stock closed at $140.68 per share with a market capitalization of $42.209 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Leading commercial real estate services companies CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) and Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) should benefit from structural and secular tailwinds: the outsourcing of commercial real estate, the institutionalization of commercial real estate, and opportunities to increase market share in a highly fragmented market. Looking forward, we believe we are in the early days of a rebound in commercial real estate sales and leasing activity. We believe CBRE and JLL may generate annual earnings per share growth of more than 20% in the next few years.”
A downtown skyline, highlighting a successful real estate services company.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 54 hedge fund portfolios held CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 49 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) and shared Generation Investment Management’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.