Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Opportunity Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund declined 4.54% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 2.31% return for the Russell 3000 Growth Index and a 7.56% return for the S&P 500 Index. For the one-year period, the fund fell sharply trailing both indexes. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.
Baron Opportunity Fund highlighted stocks like CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is a cloud-delivered protection provider. On February 28, 2023, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) stock closed at $120.69 per share. One-month return of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) was 9.22%, and its shares lost 40.18% of their value over the last 52 weeks. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) has a market capitalization of $28.289 billion.
Baron Opportunity Fund made the following comment about CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is a market leading cloud-native cybersecurity vendor. Shares declined on the back of a weaker-than-expected earnings report, in which revenue beat Street expectations but net new annual recurring revenue (ARR) slightly missed consensus due to elongated sales cycles that impacted deals with small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and phased start dates with larger customers. For example, instead of 100,000 end-points starting on day 1, start 75,000 on day 1 and 25,000 six months later. For fuller context, in the fiscal third quarter, revenue grew 53%, ARR grew 54%, net new ARR was $198 million vs. expectations about $20 million higher, and the business generated 30% FCF margins. Accounting for the net new ARR miss, the company offered conservative initial guidance for fiscal year 2024 (ending January 2024), with ARR growth in the low 30s, subscription revenue growth in the low-to-mid 30s, and FCF margins around the 30% level. While this was a painful reset, CrowdStrike noted its SMB win rates had improved, enterprise win rates remained constant, its gross and net retention rates are at best-in-class levels, and its emerging products were experiencing rapid adoption. Despite short-term weakness, Morgan Stanley’s fourth quarter CIO survey showed security software projects remained the top CIO priority, and our research continues to indicate that CrowdStrike is one of the few true platforms in the security space.”
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CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 66 hedge fund portfolios held CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 85 in the previous quarter.
We discussed CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in another article and shared the list of most promising tech stocks according to analysts.. 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.