In This Article:
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 Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX). Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) is a digital infrastructure company. The one-month return of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) was -1.29%, and its shares gained 2.41% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 26, 2025, Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) stock closed at $38.88 per share with a market capitalization of $88.599 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
"In the most recent quarter, the shares of Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX), the premier global operator of network-dense, carrier-neutral data centers, performed well following solid third quarter results. We continue to be optimistic about the long-term growth prospects for the company due to its interconnection focus among a highly curated customer ecosystem, irreplaceable global footprint, strong demand and pricing power, favorable supply backdrop, and evolving incremental demand vectors such as AI. Equinix has multiple levers to drive outsized bottom-line growth with operating leverage. Equinix should compound its earnings per share at approximately 10% over the next few years and we believe the prospects for outsized shareholder returns remain compelling from here given the superior secular growth prospects combined with a discounted valuation.