Baron Capital, an investment management company, released its Q1 2026 investor letter for the “Baron Health Care Fund”. A copy of the letter is available to download here. Baron Health Care Fund (the Fund) declined 6.97% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter, compared to the 4.88% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (the Benchmark) and the 3.96% decline for the Russell 3000 Index (the Index). The Fund appreciated 9.39% on an annualized basis since its inception, compared to the 8.97% gain for the Benchmark and the 13.26% gain for the Index. The disappointing stock selection drove the Fund’s underperformance in the quarter. Despite recent challenges, the Fund believes the long-term outlook for health care remains positive due to factors including an aging population, rising chronic disease rates, advances in biotechnology, and increased health care spending. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is a life science and clinical research company focusing on providing life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services. On April 28, 2026, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) closed at $470.22 per share. One-month return of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) was -4.92%, and its shares gained 9.61% over the past 52 weeks. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) has a market capitalization of $174.74 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is a life sciences company that offers instruments and consumables for research, tools for bioproduction, specialty diagnostics, and contract research and manufacturing services. Shares decreased during the quarter, as life sciences broadly came under pressure following a weak round of fourth-quarter 2025 results. Several areas still need to stabilize, including biotechnology spending, disruptions at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health funding, and pharmaceutical spending following Most-Favored Nation-related policy changes under the current administration. We remain positive on Thermo Fisher’s long-term growth outlook, however. The company is dominant across multiple end markets, and its scale provides meaningful resilience. Once the macroeconomic environment normalizes, we expect Thermo Fisher to achieve a high-single-digit organic growth profile along with double-digit earnings-per-share growth.”
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) ranks 34 on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 113 hedge fund portfolios held Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 121 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) revenue rose 6% year-over-year to $11.01 billion. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) and shared the list of best stem cell therapy stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 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.
