Why Baron Asset Fund in Bullish on TransUnion (TRU) Stock?

Baron Asset Fund recently published its first-quarter commentary – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the first quarter of 2020, the Baron Asset Fund returned -16.63% (institutional shares). In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 Index was down 19.60%, while the Russell Midcap Growth Index was down 20.04%.

In the said letter, Baron Asset Fund highlighted a few stocks and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) is one of them. TransUnion is a consumer credit reporting agency. Year-to-date, TRU stock lost 8.5% and on May 5th it had a closing price of $79.00. Its market cap is of $14.9 billion. Here is what Baron Asset Fund said:

“TransUnion is a consumer credit bureau that helps businesses make wellinformed credit and marketing decisions. The company reported betterthan-expected quarterly results during the quarter. However, the stock underperformed as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a deterioration in the economic outlook, causing investors to question the sustainability of TransUnion’s strong growth if the economy enters a recession. While growth may slow, we continue to own the stock because we expect TransUnion to continue gaining market share while continuing to diversify into attractive information services verticals.”

In Q4 2019, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on TRU stock decreased by about 3% from the previous quarter (see the chart here).

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.