Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron FinTech Fund” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund declined 2.25% (Institutional Shares) compared to a (5.78)% return for the FactSet Global FinTech Index (Benchmark) and a 4.28% gain for the S&P 500 index. US equities rose with major market indices reaching all-time highs during the second quarter. Overwhelming corporate results were accompanied by mixed economic data that points to further moderation of inflation. However, the rally was concentrated and driven by mega-cap technology companies. The fund’s smaller market cap profile and lack of exposure to the Magnificent Seven led the fund to underperform the broader market. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron FinTech Fund highlighted stocks like Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) offers financial management and compliance products and services. The one-month return of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) was -5.82%, and its shares gained 26.19% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 12, 2024, Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) stock closed at $627.41 per share with a market capitalization of $176.17 billion.
Baron FinTech Fund stated the following regarding Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“GenAI has captured the market’s imagination, but it’s still very early in the user adoption of this new technology, and the financial payoff from investments into GenAI models and infrastructure is still unknown. We are focused on investing in strong businesses that will be improved by AI, even if this improvement takes time to materialize. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) has been rolling out Intuit Assist, a GenAI powered digital assistant, across its product lines to help Credit Karma users select new credit cards, QuickBooks customers forecast cash flow, Mailchimp customers create targeted email marketing campaigns, and TurboTax customers understand changes in their tax returns from the prior year. We consider these GenAI advancements to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but we continue to closely monitor the impact of new technologies on the fintech industry.”
A professional tax preparer, using a laptop to complete an income tax return.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 77 hedge fund portfolios held Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) at the end of the first quarter which was 75 in the previous quarter. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) had a strong third quarter of fiscal 2024 and reported revenue of $6.7 billion, up 12%, GAAP operating income of $3.1 billion, up 12%, and Non-GAAP operating income of $3.7 billion, up 11% from last year. While we acknowledge the potential of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) 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 Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) and shared the list of best SaaS 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.
