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Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” fourth quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund increased 12.46% (Institutional Shares) in the full year compared to a 7.49% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index) and a 12.70% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index). The fund decreased 2.98% in the fourth quarter, outperforming 6.39% and 4.69% declines for the indexes for the same period. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Baron Real Estate Fund emphasized stocks such as Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX). Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is one of the largest alternative asset management firms specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The one-month return of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) was -11.47%, and its shares gained 22.87% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 27, 2025, Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) stock closed at $157.39 per share with a market capitalization of $192.2 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
"In the most recent quarter, the shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX), the world’s largest alternative asset manager, continued to perform well due to strong quarterly business results and expectations for enduring and compelling long-term growth prospects. In the year ahead, we believe growth prospects for Blackstone should be strong as management sees meaningful opportunities in private wealth, AI, and data centers, a cyclical recovery in real estate, and additional opportunities which should help to grow fees. In addition, there are emerging green shoots that transaction activity is poised to come back strongly after several years of depressed levels. Increased transaction activity provides the ability to realize carried interest/provide clarity on valuation marks and return capital to limited partners, which feeds the “flywheel” of capital formation for additional fund vehicles.