Soumya Eswaran
3 min read
In This Article:
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q1 2025, stocks were sold due to economic growth slowdown, inflation, and policymaking issues, including Baron Real Estate Fund®, without considering value. The fund declined 6.69% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 3.11% decline for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index) and a 0.76% gain for the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT 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 Real Estate Fund highlighted stocks such as Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL). Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) is a REIT that drives the transformation of healthcare infrastructure. The one-month return of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) was -2.63%, and its shares gained 42.05% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 14, 2025, Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) stock closed at $143.40 per share with a market capitalization of $93.777 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
"Shares of Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL) continued to significantly outperform both the REIT and broader equity indices. We believe Welltower offers both “offensive” and “defensive” investment attributes in the current uncertain macroenvironment. Welltower is an operator of senior housing, life science, and medical office real estate properties. Given most of the company’s cash flows are derived from senior housing, “defensive” characteristics are underpinned by a “needs based” service offering. Welltower owns senior housing properties in some of the best micro-markets with substantial pricing power given the company serves a higher net worth demographic.
