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 McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK). McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) offers healthcare services through U.S. Pharmaceutical, Prescription Technology Solutions (RxTS), Medical-Surgical Solutions, and International segments. The one-month return of McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) was 0.07%, and its shares gained 25.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 9, 2025, McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) stock closed at $693.46 per share with a market capitalization of $86.683 billion.
Baron Health Care Fund stated the following regarding McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Minimally offsetting the above was strength in health care distributors attributable to a combination of stock selection and active exposure to this strong performing sub-industry. Recent addition McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), a leading distributor of pharmaceutical/medical supplies and provider of prescription technology solutions that connect pharmacies, providers, payers, and biopharmaceutical customers, led the way in health care distributors. We discuss why we re-established a position in McKesson in the Recent Activity section below.
