Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Technology Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Market trends are often driven by sentiment in addition to fundamental elements, and the first quarter of 2025 was a clear example of this. January saw a strong performance for the Fund, driven by investor excitement around long-term growth trends in AI. Optimism was fueled by expectations of the new Trump administration’s policies to accelerate economic growth. However, by mid-February, fears of tariffs, a potential trade war, and geopolitical shifts reversed market gains, leading to significant volatility. In the first quarter, the fund fell 14.80% (Institutional Shares), underperforming an 11.64% decline for the MSCI ACWI Information Technology Index (the Benchmark) and a 4.27% decline for the S&P 500 index. 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 Technology Fund highlighted stocks such as CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP). CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) is an information, analytics, and online marketplace services provider for commercial and residential property markets. The one-month return of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) was -6.37%, and its shares lost 14.13% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 12, 2025, CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) stock closed at $75.38 per share with a market capitalization of $31.802 billion.
Baron Technology Fund stated the following regarding CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) is the leading provider of information and marketing services to the commercial and residential real estate industry. Shares rose on an increase in the productivity of CoStar’s sales force and signs of a start to the recovery of the commercial real estate market. Mixed results around net new sales following CoStar’s significant investment in residential product Homes.com had pressured shares. We remain encouraged by growth in both traffic and brand awareness for the new product and are optimistic that the build out of a dedicated sales team as well as the potential benefits of changes in Multiple Listing Service practices will improve residential sales momentum. We also believe growth in CoStar’s non-residential business is poised to accelerate. Sales productivity has begun to improve as salespeople return to exclusively selling their core product, and we expect this to be amplified as the sales force expands by 20% or more in 2025. We believe the value of CoStar’s core non-residential business exceeds the share price, implying that investors ascribe negative value to the residential opportunity.”
An elegant residential building set against the modern skyline.
CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 56 hedge fund portfolios held CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2025, CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) reported revenue of $732 million, reflecting a 12% increase from Q1 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) and shared Third Point Management’s views on the company. Baron Focused Growth Fund considers CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) as a Core Growth investment as its strategy aligns with the fund’s investment approach. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 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.
