Baron Funds, an investment management firm, released its “Focused Growth Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Q1 was a difficult start to the year. The fund declined 7.95% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter, compared to the Russell 2500 Growth Index’s (the Benchmark) 10.80% return. Please spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to know more about their top bets for 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Focused Growth Fund highlighted stocks such as Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT). Headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) offers audio streaming subscription services. The one-month return of Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) was 15.42%, and its shares gained 119.93% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 6, 2025, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) stock closed at $632.85 per share with a market capitalization of $134.469 billion.
Baron Focused Growth Fund stated the following regarding Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is a leading global digital music service offering on-demand audio streaming through paid premium subscriptions and an ad-supported model. Shares were up, once again attributable to another impressive beat in gross margins and a healthy increase in operating margins. Spotify has been on a path to structurally increase gross margins, aided by its high-margin artist promotions marketplace, growing contribution from podcasts, and structural investments in advertising. Users continued to grow at a double-digit pace despite price hikes. Spotify also continued to innovate on the product side, calling 2025 the “year of accelerated execution,” with priorities in improving advertising, expanding into video, developing a Super Premium tier, and taking more market share. We view Spotify as a long-term winner in music streaming with potential to reach 1 billion-plus monthly active users.”
A person wearing headphones listening to an audio streaming service.
Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is in 25th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 101 hedge fund portfolios held Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 98 in the third quarter. In Q1 2025, Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) generated a total revenue of $4.2 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 15% on a constant currency basis. While we acknowledge the potential of Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) 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.
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