Baron Funds: “We Continue to be Positive on Verisign (VRSN)’s Business”

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Asset Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. Against this backdrop, Baron Asset Fund (the “Fund”) gained 5.04% (Institutional Shares), while the Russell Midcap Growth Index (the “Index”) gained 2.85%, and the S&P 500 Index gained 11.03%. The Fund’s outperformance was attributable to favorable stock selection and tailwinds from certain style biases, notably its underexposure to the poor performing residual volatility and beta factors. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Baron Asset Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) and discussed its stance on the firm. VeriSign, Inc. is a Reston, Virginia-based internet company with a $25.1 billion market capitalization. VRSN delivered a -10.77% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 15.98%. The stock closed at $226.48 per share on January 17, 2022.

Here is what Baron Asset Fund has to say about VeriSign, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Verisign, Inc. provides internet infrastructure services worldwide and is best known for its exclusive role managing the .com and .net domains, for which it receives annual fees from all those domain owners. Shares of Verisign gained after reporting strong revenue growth and operating margins that exceeded Wall Street forecasts. We continue to be positive on Verisign’s business, based on its strong competitive position, capacity for global growth in domain names, and its ongoing ability to generate substantial free cash flow.”

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

Our calculations show that VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. VRSN was in 40 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 41 funds in the previous quarter. VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) delivered a 5.60% return in the past 3 months.

You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.