Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Opportunity Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. An increase of 3.16% was delivered by the fund’s institutional shares for the fourth quarter of 2021 but trailed the Russell 3000 Growth Index, which increased 10.89%, and the S&P 500 Index, which climbed 11.03%. For the full year 2021, the Fund gained 12.29% but underperformed the two indexes, which advanced 25.85% and 28.71%, respectively Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Baron Opportunity Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1998, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) is a San Jose, California-based financial technology company with a $138.3 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Dan Schulman. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) delivered a -37.02% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -50.78%. The stock closed at $118.77 per share on March 18, 2022.
Here is what Baron Opportunity Fund has to say about PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“PayPal Holdings, Inc. enables digital payments for consumers and merchants worldwide. Shares fell after the company reported lower-thanexpected quarterly results, and reduced guidance due to the faster roll-off of eBay’s processing business and slowing e-commerce growth as stores reopen. Shares were also pressured by rumors of a potential acquisition of Pinterest, as well as broader weakness across payment stocks during the quarter. We believe the share price decline is overdone given quarterly revenue growth of 25% (excluding eBay), and PayPal’s unmatched global scale with 416 million active accounts. We continue to own the stock because we believe PayPal is a prime beneficiary of the secular growth of e-commerce and digital financial services.”
Our calculations show that PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) ranks 14th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) was in 110 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 123 funds in the previous quarter. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) delivered a -36.21% return in the past 3 months.
In March 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) in another article. 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.
