Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund declined 2.55% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 1.02% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and a 3.22% gain for the Russell 3000 Index (the Index). The underperformance in the quarter was due to active sub-industry/market cap weights. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities. The one-month return of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) was 13.37%, and its shares gained 35.14% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 1, 2024, HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) stock closed at $363.12 per share with a market capitalization of $93.712 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“On the health care provider side, volumes remain healthy and labor costs have moderated. We continue to like HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), the best-in-class hospital operator with an attractive set of increasingly diversified assets in strong urban markets, where it is typically the #1 or #2 provider. Its strong operating cash flow and under-levered balance sheet provide flexibility to make growth investments and return capital to shareholders.”
Close-up of a healthcare worker wearing a medical mask and entering a hospital.
HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 72 hedge fund portfolios held HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) at the end of the first quarter which was 72 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, HCA Healthcare, Inc.’s (NYSE:HCA) adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 28% to $5.50. The company’s broad-based volume growth across markets and service lines was consistent with the first quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) 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 HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) and shared the list of best health insurance stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
