Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund rose 6.17% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 4.90% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the “REIT Index”) and an 8.71% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the “MSCI Real Estate Index”). For 2022, the fund declined 28.44% compared to a 23.84% decline for the MSCI Real Estate Index and a 25.37% decline for the REIT Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.
Baron Funds highlighted stocks like Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is an integrated resorts operator. On January 31, 2023, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) stock closed at $59.00 per share. One-month return of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) was 13.70%, and its shares gained 31.84% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) has a market capitalization of $45.086 billion.
Baron Funds made the following comment about Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“Certain travel-related businesses remain cyclically depressed, not secularly challenged, and should rebound as economic strength re-emerges. For example, the business operations of Macau-centric casino and gaming companies such as Las Vegas Sands Corporation have yet to recover due to the ongoing COVID-19 challenges in China. We expect business to rebound sharply when economic growth recovers just as it did in Las Vegas.
Following strong absolute and relative share price performance in 2022 – Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s shares increased 23% while most other U.S. casino and gaming companies declined anywhere from 20% to more than 50% – we reduced the Fund’s position in Sands in the most recent quarter
The company is a global leader in the development and operation of luxury casino resorts in Macau and Singapore, and it maintains a liquid and investment grade balance sheet. We anticipate that management may begin to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks as Singapore and Macau recover.
We have maintained a position in the company because we expect business activity in Macau to recover in the next few years, and we believe the shares are attractively valued relative to our assessment of replacement cost and its two- to three-year cash flow prospects.”
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Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 48 hedge fund portfolios held Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) at the end of the third quarter, which was 42 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) in another article and shared the list of best sin stocks to buy in 2023. 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.
