Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Small Cap Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of 4.69% was delivered by the fund’s institutional shares for the fourth quarter of 2021 and 15.84% for the year. This well exceeded the returns of the Russell 2000 Growth Index (the “Index”), which was flat in the fourth quarter and up 2.83% for the year. This was a quarter and a year where small-cap stocks did worse than large caps. The S&P 500 Index gained 11.03% in the quarter and 28.71% for the year. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Baron Small Cap Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE: SITE) and discussed its stance on the firm. SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. is a Roswell, Georgia-based commercial and residential landscape supply distributor with a $7.7 billion market capitalization. SITE delivered a -25.95% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 9.63%. The stock closed at $173.29 per share on February 11, 2022.
Here is what Baron Small Cap Fund has to say about SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Shares of SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc., the largest distributor of wholesale supplies to the landscape trade, continued its strong uptrend after the company reported terrific results for the quarter. Organic sales increased 5%, total sales were up 25%, and EBITDA grew 46% as margins increased 200 basis points. All results well outpaced expectations, against tough comparisons, as the landscape market remains healthy and the company’s initiatives to drive greater-than-market growth and raise margins are taking hold. Industry consolidation has been a big value driver, and 2021 was
another year of strong inorganic growth (acquisitions). Its pipeline is deep and expanding, and the company still has only 12% market share. As we believe its share can triple from here, the company can be much larger and more profitable in time.”
Our calculations show that SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE: SITE) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. SITE was in 15 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 25 funds in the previous quarter. SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE: SITE) delivered a -27.79% return in the past 3 months.
In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on SITE 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.
