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Baron Technology Fund

Symbol BTEEXCUSIP: 06828M579
Symbol BTEEXCUSIP: 06828M579
SCT
Sector

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$10.65

Daily Change $0.09 (0.85%)
As of 07/26/2024

Net Assets

$35.18 M

As of 06/30/2024

Morningstar Medalist Rating™

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GOLD

Inception date

12/31/2021

Prices & Performance

PricesAs of 07/26/2024

NAVDaily Change ($)Daily Change (%)MTDQTDYTD
$10.65$0.090.85%-3.97%-3.97%17.94%
NAV$10.65
Daily Change ($)$0.09
Daily Change (%)0.85%
MTD-3.97%
QTD-3.97%
YTD17.94%

PerformanceAs of 06/30/2024

YTD11 YearSince Inception
12/31/2021
BTEEX - Baron Technology Fund22.81%40.03%4.23%
MSCI ACWI Information Technology Index24.80%37.68%11.04%
S&P 500 Index15.29%24.56%7.29%
MSCI ACWI Index11.30%19.38%4.28%

Portfolio Holdings & Characteristics

HoldingsAs of 06/30/2024

HoldingSector% of Net Assets
NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) sells semiconductors, systems, and software for accelerated computing, gaming, and generative AI (GenAI).
Computing demand has been doubling every one to two years, driven by electrification, digitization and the recent advancements in AI, yet supply growth has decelerated dramatically due to the slowdown in Moore's law. NVIDIA’s accelerated computing architecture enables continued growth in supply of computing through parallelization. We are at the tipping point of a new era in computing with NVIDIA at its epicenter as GenAI adoption grows. Given its leading market share in gaming, data centers, and autonomous machines, we believe NVIDIA can grow rapidly for years to come.
Information Technology12.1%
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) is an e-commerce pioneer, innovator, and market share leader with a relentless focus on providing value and convenience to its customers. Amazon also operates the industry-leading cloud infrastructure business Amazon Web Services.
Amazon's market share of U.S. online retail sales is around 40%, while its share of global online retail sales is less than 5%. Amazon has many avenues for revenue growth, including consumer staples, apparel, international expansion, digital media offerings, private label, pharmacy services, advertising, and a better shopping experience powered by generative AI. With Amazon Web Services as a large, growing part of the business, we also believe Amazon represents a unique opportunity to invest in the secular growth of cloud computing.
Consumer Discretionary10.2%
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) is a software company traditionally known for its Windows and Office products. Over the last five years, it has built a $120 billion-plus annual cloud business, including Office 365, CRM product Dynamics 365, and infrastructure-as-a-service product Azure.
Microsoft is led by Satya Nadella, who has refocused the company on cloud computing and AI. He has been quite successful thus far, with Microsoft's commercial cloud business now representing over 56% of revenue and growing around 25% year-on-year. Microsoft's moat is based on the wide reach of its sales channel, its diverse platform of software offerings, hybrid cloud capabilities, and the high costs of switching away from its solutions, which tend to be critical for its customers. We believe Microsoft will benefit from the growing adoption of cloud for years to come.
Information Technology9.8%
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) designs, manufactures, and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Its products include the iPhone, iPad, Mac personal computer, Apple smartwatch, Apple TV, and HomePod. It also offers advertising and app discovery services through its App Store.
As the creator and owner of one of the largest and most popular consumer electronics platforms, Apple, in our view, is well positioned to benefit from the network effect that typically accrues to platform companies. It has a large and growing ecosystem, a trusted brand, and positive optionality through its efforts to expand into additional consumer and enterprise services with its large installed base. We believe Apple trades at a discount to our estimate of its intrinsic value, with capital return and growth alleviating near-term trade and iPhone demand uncertainty. 
Information Technology7.9%
Broadcom Inc.
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) designs, develops, and supplies a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. Its semiconductor devices serve broadband, networking, wireless, storage, and industrial markets while its software offerings focus on operational efficiency tools for large enterprises.
Broadcom’s semiconductor portfolio is reaching an inflection point, driven by its AI solutions in networking and custom compute. The rest of its semis portfolio should grow at mid-single digits, while its legacy software offerings should grow at low-single digits as the company focuses on cost efficiencies, cross-selling, and servicing key enterprise accounts. We think recent acquisition VMWare will grow faster post-purchase due to Broadcom's product simplification and SaaS conversion strategy. Broadcom has strong margins and cash flow, which it returns to shareholders.
Information Technology5.2%
Spotify Technology S.A.
Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) is the world's leading music streaming service, with approximately 40% market share. The company monetizes through subscriptions, advertising, and miscellaneous a la carte pricing.
With over 239 million paying subscribers, Spotify has created a two-sided marketplace where creators can monetize their work and consumers can stream music. Longer term, we expect the company to grow to over one billion total subscribers (from 615 million today) and improve margins materially through advertising, its artist promotions marketplace, and improved cost discipline. On the product side, we expect Spotify to continually improve its value proposition through additional features and expansion into adjacencies such as audiobooks.
Communication Services4.8%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM) is the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry, manufacturing chips on behalf of other companies.
Taiwan Semi (TSMC) remains the dominant force in leading edge semiconductor foundry manufacturing, as it benefits from economies of scale and a superior cost structure. Its successful track record of deploying new technology faster than competitors enables it to maintain its market share and pricing power. We believe TSMC’s investments in advanced nodes will solidify its superior market positioning and profitability in the long run.
Information Technology4.5%
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) owns Facebook, the world's largest social network, with over 3.0 billion monthly and over 2.1 billion daily active users. Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus are also part of the Meta Platforms network, with over 3.9 billion total monthly unique users across Meta products.
Meta owns unique social platforms with users that continue to demonstrate stickiness and high engagement. Advertisers want to be where users are, and Meta's ability to analyze, target, and show clear, demonstrable, and rising returns on investment makes the platform particularly attractive to them. We believe the company is still in the middle innings of monetizing its vast customer base, especially internationally. In addition, we see significant positive optionality from monetization opportunities in short-form video, WhatsApp, and generative AI features.
Communication Services3.7%
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is a global fabless semiconductor company focusing on high performance computing technology, software, and products. The company designs leading high-performance CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and other compute products to build differentiated solutions across many end markets.
Advanced Micro Devices has been gaining meaningful share in server CPUs over the past several years, driven by the strong performance of its processors and execution against its differentiated technology roadmap. Its revamped GPU offerings for AI applications are the only viable merchant GPU competitors to NVIDIA in a large and growing AI compute market. We believe these two key products will continue to drive rapid growth and share gains within the data center compute market, with the 2022 Xilinx acquisition opening up additional opportunities in other diversified markets.
Information Technology3.3%
CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP) is the leading provider of information and marketing services to the commercial real estate industry.
CoStar has built a proprietary database through data collection over a 20-year period, creating high barriers to entry. We think CoStar's suite should grow at mid-teens rates, and we believe its Loopnet marketing platform can grow even faster. Its Apartments.com platform is the dominant multi-family internet listing service and should grow revenue by more than 20%. CoStar is starting to expand into residential, creating additional significant growth opportunities. Its balance sheet and cash generation create M&A optionality.
Real Estate2.8%
Total
Total
64.3%
Top Ten Fund Holdings based on net assets. Portfolio holdings may change over time.
Portfolio holdings are subject to change. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk.

Contributors / DetractorsQuarterly as of 06/30/2024

Top ContributorsAverage WeightContribution
NVIDIA Corporation11.02%3.89%
Broadcom Inc.5.10%1.18%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited4.07%1.08%
Spotify Technology S.A.4.88%0.89%
Apple Inc.3.66%0.86%
Source: FactSet PA.

GICS Sector BreakdownAs of 06/30/2024

Portfolio Characteristics

Information Technology

71.0%

Consumer Discretionary

13.8%

Communication Services

11.0%

Real Estate

2.8%

Industrials

1.0%

Cash & Cash Equivalents

0.5%

Sub-Industry
06/30/2024
Semiconductors29.60%
Systems Software13.70%
Broadline Retail 10.20%
Application Software7.90%
Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals7.90%
Semiconductor Materials & Equipment 5.00%
Movies & Entertainment4.80%
Interactive Media & Services4.00%
Electronic Equipment & Instruments2.90%
Real Estate Services 2.80%
Automobile Manufacturers2.50%
IT Consulting & Other Services2.30%
Advertising2.20%
Internet Services & Infrastructure1.70%
Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines1.00%
051015202530
Semiconductors29.60%
Systems Software13.70%
Broadline Retail 10.20%
Application Software7.90%
Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals7.90%
Semiconductor Materials & Equipment 5.00%
Movies & Entertainment4.80%
Interactive Media & Services4.00%
Electronic Equipment & Instruments2.90%
Real Estate Services 2.80%
Automobile Manufacturers2.50%
IT Consulting & Other Services2.30%
Advertising2.20%
Internet Services & Infrastructure1.70%
Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines1.00%
051015202530

Portfolio CharacteristicsAs of 06/30/2024

Baron Technology FundMSCI ACWI Information Technology Index
Inception DateDecember 31, 2021
Net Assets$35.18 million
# of Issuers / % of Net Assets36 / 99.5%
Turnover (2 Year)31.50%
Active Share54.8%
Median Market Cap$45.58 billion$11.40 billion
Weighted Average Market Cap$1.34 trillion$1.69 trillion
Gross Expense Ratio4.58%
Net Expense Ratio1.20%
EPS Growth (3-5 year forecast)25.5%21.3%
Price/Earnings Ratio (trailing 12-month)50.437.5
Price/Book Ratio8.35.8
Price/Sales Ratio7.35.5
The Net Assets include all share classes combined.
Price/Book Ratio and Price/Sales Ratio are calculated using the Weighted Harmonic Average. Source: FactSet PA. Internal valuation metrics may differ.