Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund advanced 8.92% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to an 8.52% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and a 10.56% increase for the S&P 500 Index. The fund rose 13.61% on an annualized basis since its inception on April 30, 2018, compared to an 11.45% gain for the benchmark and a 14.24% gain for the index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
Baron Health Care Fund featured stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. On April 22, 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $491.23 per share. One-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was -0.65%, and its shares lost 0.57% of their value over the last 52 weeks. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) has a market capitalization of $450.927 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a leading health insurance company that operates across four segments: United Healthcare, Optum Health, OptumInsight, and OptumRX. Shares fell alongside other managed care organizations (MCOs) due to patient utilization of Medicare Advantage (MA) that was higher than consensus forecasts, raising concerns that MCOs had mispriced 2024 bids and could suffer margin compression as a result. In addition, the industry is facing headwinds from MA reimbursement cuts and Star Rating changes. While management said higher cost trends are mostly transitory and reflected in its bidding, and 2024 guidance was roughly in line with consensus, investors took a more cautious wait-and-see approach. We believe UnitedHealth should remain a core portfolio holding, as it is a way to play positive demographic, population health, and value-based reimbursement trends. Despite its size, we think the company should be able to grow earnings consistent with its 13% to 16% long-term EPS annual target, the fastest among major MCOs.”
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 20th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was held by 113 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 104 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We previously discussed UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in another article, where we shared the list of best low volatility stocks to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 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.