Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Asset Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund appreciated 5.34% in the first quarter, trailing the Russell Midcap Growth Index, which returned 9.14%. Stock selection drove the fund to underperform in the quarter. IT, Communication Services, and Consumer Discretionary were the strongest performing sectors, while Energy and Financials were the principal laggards. Furthermore, defensive-oriented sectors, Health Care, Utilities, and Consumer Staples also struggled in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Asset Fund highlighted stocks like MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) is an electronic trading platform provider. On May 1, 2023, MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) stock closed at $317.29 per share. One-month return of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) was -19.12%, and its shares gained 19.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has a market capitalization of $11.952 billion.
Baron Asset Fund made the following comment about MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) operates the leading electronic platform for trading corporate bonds. Shares rose during the quarter following an uptick in trading activity and market share gains across most of its product categories. Average daily trading volume grew 14%, and the company’s market share increased 100 basis points to 19%. The company is benefiting from an improving variable fee rate, elevated fixed income market volatility, and inflows into fixed income ETFs, which trade more frequently on electronic platforms. We remain optimistic about MarketAxess over the long term and believe the company will see accelerated growth amid the ongoing secular shift to electronic trading in the corporate bond market.”
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 22 hedge fund portfolios held MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 32 in the previous quarter.
We discussed MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in another article and shared Artisan Small Cap Fund’s views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 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.
