Baron Funds, an asset management firm, published its “Baron Discovery Fund” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A quarterly return of 3.13% was delivered by the fund’s institutional shares for the fourth quarter of 2021, which was better than the Russell 2000 Growth Index’s 0.01% return, but below the S&P 500 Index’s gain of 11.03% for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.
Baron Discovery Fund, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Revance Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVNC) and discussed its stance on the firm. Revance Therapeutics, Inc. is a Nashville, Tennessee-based biotechnology company with a $1.0 billion market capitalization. RVNC delivered a -14.03% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -50.58%. The stock closed at $14.03 per share on January 20, 2022.
Here is what Baron Discovery Fund has to say about Revance Therapeutics, Inc. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Revance Therapeutics, Inc. is an aesthetics pharmaceutical company developing a long-lasting injectable botulinum toxin that it calls Daxibotulinum toxin (“Daxi”). The duration of the drug’s effect is almost twice as long as Botox, the market leader, and is unique in this multi-billion dollar market that includes both aesthetic and therapeutic uses. The company has shown solid phase 3 clinical results for the glabellar lines (above the nose) indication for its drug, and submitted an NDA for approval of the drug, as well as an application for approval of its manufacturing facilities in California. Originally, the FDA drug approval deadline was slated for November 2020, but due to COVID, the timeline kept getting pushed back. A plant inspection was finally performed by the FDA in the third quarter of 2021. To the massive surprise of the company and the markets, the FDA determined in the fourth quarter, that there were certain plant deficiencies (not fully disclosed to the public) which prevented approval at the time. Needless to say, it was a negative event, and shares suffered. Management is in the process of garnering more information from the FDA to understand and remediate the causes of the agency’s concerns. We believe that Daxi ultimately gets approved (possibly by later in 2022), and that there is enormous embedded value in the company’s equity.”
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Our calculations show that Revance Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVNC) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. RVNC was in 16 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 12 funds in the previous quarter. Revance Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVNC) delivered a -10.98% return in the past 3 months.
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.
