Here’s Why Baron Funds Sold its RingCentral (RNG) Stake

Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Asset Fund” first quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. Baron Asset Fund (the “Fund”) fell 14.52% (Institutional Shares), while the Russell Midcap Growth Index (the “Index”) fell 12.58%. The S&P 500 Index, which comprises both growths and value-oriented large-cap stocks, fell 4.60%. Try to spend some time looking at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.

In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Baron Asset Fund mentioned RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1999, RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) is a Belmont, California-based cloud-based communication and collaboration products and services provider with a $5.9 billion market capitalization. RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) delivered a -66.60% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by -73.43%. The stock closed at $62.58 per share on May 16, 2022.

Here is what Baron Asset Fund has to say about RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:

“During the quarter, we sold our stake in RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG), a cloud-based provider of communications software. We grew concerned that the company’s products faced increased competition from Microsoft’s Teams product, which is being bundled into other Microsoft software at little additional cost to customers.”

Our calculations show that RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) was in 47 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 48 funds in the previous quarter. RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) delivered a -62.79% return in the past 3 months.

In March 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.

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