Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund declined 6.05% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 3.88% loss for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and a 3.27% loss for the S&P 500 Index. Year-to-date through September 30, 2023, the fund declined 1.17%, compared to a 3.83% decline for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index and a 13.07% increase for the S&P 500 Index. The combination of stock selection and active sub-industry weights drove the underperformance of the fund in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks like Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in the third quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a pharmaceutical company. On October 19, 2023, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stock closed at $590.80 per share. One-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 7.39%, and its shares gained 79.54% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) has a market capitalization of $560.843 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund made the following comment about Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)and Company is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells medicines in the categories of diabetes, oncology, neuroscience, and immunology, among other areas. Stock performance was strong due to strong second quarter sales of blockbuster diabetes/obesity medicine Mounjaro and ongoing enthusiasm surrounding the company’s obesity and diabetes franchises, particularly after Novo Nordisk released its SELECT trial results. We continue to think Lilly is well positioned to grow revenue and earnings at attractive rates through the end of the decade and beyond.
We have positioned the Fund to benefit from this trend by maintaining a large position in Eli Lilly and Company, which we believe will remain a leader in the field with its drug Mounjaro and its deep pipeline of next generation GLP-1 medicines. Analysts now estimate the GLP-1 drug class could surpass $100 billion in revenue by the end of the decade and we expect Lilly to hold a meaningful share of that market.”
A close-up of a biopharmaceutical technology device in a pristine laboratory. Editorial photo for a financial news article. 8k. –ar 16:9
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 87 hedge fund portfolios held Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) at the end of second quarter which was 72 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in another article and shared the list of top oncology companies in the world. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 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.