Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Asset Fund” second quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. U.S. equities continued their upward trend in the second consecutive quarter. The rise was led by the outsized performance of a few large technology companies, partly driven by the hype surrounding their potential benefits from the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Against this backdrop, the Baron Asset Fund increased by 3.63% (Institutional Shares) trailing Russell Midcap Growth Index’s 6.23% returns. The underperformance of certain stocks affected the fund in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Asset Fund highlighted stocks like MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the second quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in New York, New York, MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) is an electronic trading platform operator. On July 27, 2023, MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) stock closed at $269.50 per share. One-month return of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) was 3.09%, and its shares lost 0.47% of their value over the last 52 weeks. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) has a market capitalization of $10.152 billion.
Baron Asset Fund made the following comment about MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) operates the leading electronic platform for trading corporate bonds. Weak performance during the quarter was driven by a decline in trading activity. Following a strong start to the year, trading volumes slowed during the quarter as a result of short-term dislocations in the banking sector and remained subdued because of lower volatility in the credit spread market. Interest rate movements and product mix shifts also pressured the variable fee rate that the company captured on trades. We remain optimistic that these headwinds will prove transitory and that MarketAxess will benefit from the ongoing secular shift to electronic trading in the fixed income market.”
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 29 hedge fund portfolios held MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) at the end of first quarter which was 22 in the previous quarter.
We discussed MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in another article and shared Baron FinTech Fund’s insights on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 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.
