Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund was up 19.7% (Institutional Shares) in the first quarter compared to a 14.4% gain for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and a 7.5% gain for the S&P 500 Index. The firm has great conviction about the long-term prospects of its holding companies even though the near-term uncertainty is very high. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund highlighted stocks like MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, Mercadolibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) is an eCommerce platform. On May 16, 2023, MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) stock closed at $1,275.39 per share. One-month return of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) was -2.51%, and its shares gained 70.21% of their value over the last 52 weeks. MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) has a market capitalization of $64.034 billion.
Baron Fifth Avenue Growth Fund made the following comment about MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“The stock of MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI), the dominant e-commerce platform in Latin America, rose 55.8% during the first quarter. The company reported a significant fourth quarter earnings beat, driven by strong performance on essentially all key drivers of operating margins across both the commerce and fintech segments, including higher fulfillment penetration, stronger adoption of advertising solutions, lower loan loss provisions on the credit business, and operating leverage driven by economies of scale. Net revenues grew 57% year-on-year in constant-currency, total payment volume was up 80%, and operating margins reached 11.6%. On its earnings call, the company suggested these drivers will continue to generate sequential margin expansion in the coming quarters and years. We believe retrenchment by some top e-commerce competitors could lead to a possible acceleration of MercadoLibre’s market share growth, especially in Brazil. We believe MercadoLibre will be the dominant player in a Latin American e-commerce industry that remains early in its growth lifecycle, driven by the relative low e-commerce penetration in the region. We remain shareholders.”
MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 75 hedge fund portfolios held MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 81 in the previous quarter.
We discussed MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ:MELI) in another article and shared the list of best fast growth stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 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.