Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund increased by 9.08% (Institutional Shares) compared to an 11.54% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and a 7.56% gain for the S&P 500 Index. The fund fell 16.90% in 2022, compared to a 6.10% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and an 18.11% decline for the S&P 500 Index. Factors like cash exposure in the up-market, adverse stock selection, and differences in sub-industry exposures led the fund to underperform in the quarter relative to its benchmark. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.
Baron Funds highlighted stocks like AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) is a global biopharmaceutical company. On January 27, 2023, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) stock closed at $65.53 per share. One-month return of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) was -3.35%, and its shares gained 12.58% of their value over the last 52 weeks. AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) has a market capitalization of $204.732 billion.
Baron Funds made the following comment about AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“Favorable stock selection in pharmaceuticals, owing mostly to the outperformance of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN). AstraZeneca was the third largest contributor after benefiting from incremental positive news flow surrounding the company’s oncology franchise at medical meetings
AstraZeneca PLC is a global pharmaceutical company focused on oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolism drugs. Shares increased given incremental positive news flow surrounding the oncology franchise at medical meetings and some mean reversion after lagging in the prior quarter. We retain conviction in AstraZeneca given its best-in-class growth profile among its pharmaceutical peers combined with its strong pipeline and commercial launch characteristics. We highlight Enhertu and Dato-Dxd as two new exciting near-term drug opportunities.”
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AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 44 hedge fund portfolios held AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) at the end of the third quarter, which was 47 in the previous quarter.
We discussed AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in another article and shared the list of Jim Simons’ biggest healthcare stocks. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 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.
