Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Health Care Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund returned 2.54% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 3.87% gain for the Russell 3000 Health Care Index (benchmark) and a 4.72% decline for the Russell 3000 Index (the Index). The fund trailed the benchmark due to stock selection and, to a lesser extent, active sub-industry weights. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Health Care Fund highlighted stocks such as Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN). Headquartered in Alameda, California, Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN) designs and manufactures medical devices. The one-month return of Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN) was 6.03%, and its shares gained 36.01% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 8, 2025, Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN) stock closed at $288.73 per share with a market capitalization of $11.181 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“We initiated a position in Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN), a leading manufacturer of medical devices that remove blood clots from veins and arteries. Physicians use the company’s devices to treat pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), acute limb ischemia, ischemic stroke, coronary disease, and other conditions. Penumbra’s devices, which are called mechanical thrombectomy devices, use computer algorithms to modulate the aspiration power depending on if a clot is detected and to control a separate valve that injects saline to reduce friction between the clot and catheter. This enables a differentiated device profile that maximizes clot removal with speed while decreasing risk of blood loss.
