Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund had a strong performance in 2023 and generated a gain of 25.04% (Institutional Shares). This is more than double the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index), which rose 12.27% and also outperformed the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index’s 23.09% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Real Estate Fund featured stocks such as Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) in the Q4 2023 investor letter. Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is a real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition, development, and management of apartments. On January 22, 2024, Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) stock closed at $60.30 per share. One-month return of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) was -1.37%, and its shares lost 2.11% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) has a market capitalization of $22.897 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“In the most recent quarter, we re-acquired shares in Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR), the largest U.S. multi-family REIT. The company has assembled an excellent portfolio of Class A apartment buildings located in high barrier-to-entry coastal markets with favorable long-term demographic trends and muted overall supply growth. We believe the company is also well positioned to benefit from the affordability advantages of renting versus home ownership, annual leases that provide the potential for partial inflation protection, and its low levered balance sheet, which positions the company to take advantage of acquisition opportunities.
In our opinion, Equity Residential’s shares are attractively valued relative to private market values and the company owns and operates excellent and relevant real estate that should perform well, long term.”
An exterior shot of a newly acquired apartment building, signifying the company’s acquisition of large residential properties.
Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 23 hedge fund portfolios held Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) at the end of third quarter which was 27 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) in another article and shared Baron Funds’ views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 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.
