Baron Focused Growth Fund (BFGUX)

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 primary and data collection research over a 20-year period, creating high barriers to entry. We think CoStar suite should grow at mid-teens rates, and we believe that the new Loopnet marketing platform can grow even faster. The Apartments.com platform has emerged as the dominant multifamily ILS and should revenue in excess of 20%. The company is starting to expand into Europe, creating additional greenfield opportunities that should offer high margin growth. Costar's balance sheet and cash generation creates M&A optionality.

Vail Resorts, Inc. (MTN) is the largest operator of ski resorts in the U.S. It owns 37 resorts in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, including Vail and Breckenridge in Colorado, Whistler Blackcomb in Canada, and Stowe in Vermont. Its RockResorts brand offers luxury ski lodging properties.
Most of Vail's revenues come from its ski resorts. The company has been upgrading its properties to offer new and higher quality services and amenities and summer recreational activities, which we believe should help attract more visitors and allow it to continue to raise lift ticket prices. Vail is also focused on increasing season pass sales and has been acquiring resorts to enhance the attractiveness of its multi-resort season pass. The company generates strong free cash flow that it is using for increased dividends, debt reduction, and share buybacks.

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) manufactures purely electric automobiles, including a sedan (Model S), a CUV (Model X), and mass market sedan (Model 3). In addition, through acquisition and internal development, the company offers energy generation solutions (solar) and battery-based energy storage.
In our view, Tesla could continue to grow its business rapidly through international and product expansion. We believe its strong engineer talent pool, first mover advantage, scale with its existing facilities and supply chain, Giga battery plant, expanding production capacity to China and Europe, solar activity, and recognized brand could potentially result in a market capitalization of more than $100 billion in two to three years and more thereafter. 

Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H) is a global hospitality company with 881 Hyatt-branded properties representing 213,037 keys. The company's brands include Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Place, and Hyatt Summerfield Suite. It derives 56% of EBITDA from fees and 44% from owned assets.
We believe Hyatt has a significant opportunity to market more of its brands globally, given an undersupply of rooms in developing countries. Compared to its competitors, Hyatt has the least brand penetration across the globe and the largest pipeline of unit growth. We believe its asset light strategy and strong balance sheet, coupled with continued strong pricing for hotel assets, give Hyatt an opportunity to generate strong growth. The resulting potential increased cash flow could be used for continued share repurchases and further acquisitions.

FactSet Research Systems, Inc. (FDS) provides financial information to the global investment community.
FactSet serves only a small part of the addressable market, which we estimate is roughly $20 billion annually. The company has been taking market share and offering broader data sets and more advanced portfolio analytics than its competitors, and has a highly regarded customer service model. FactSet has also been expanding into the fixed income and wealth management markets. Its products are sticky, leading to retention rates of over 95% and high visibility. FactSet generates robust free cash flow, which it has returned to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends.

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (CHH) is one of the largest hotel franchisers in the world, with 7,045 hotels and an additional 1,111 properties under development. Its franchise contracts are long term, with many as long as 20 years. Brands include Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, ComfortSuites, and Sleep Inn.
Choice has a strong franchising business with recurring revenue. It has demonstrated consistent profitability across up and down cycles through increased rates and occupancy, new unit growth, and increased royalty rates. The company has a strong pipeline of new hotel franchises and is looking to expand the number of upscale brands in its portfolio through acquisitions and new brand creations like Cambria Suites and Ascend Collection. It is also selling its systems to third-party hotels, which we think will generate significant income over time.

Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL) is a specialty insurance and reinsurance company with operations in Bermuda, the U.S., Europe, and Canada.
Arch Capital is led by an experienced management team with a successful track record across insurance cycles. The company excels at underwriting specialized policies and can nimbly shift its business mix to target the most profitable lines. Arch has a compensation system that rewards long-term profitability rather than short-term premium growth. In our view, management has demonstrated strong underwriting discipline and capital stewardship, allowing Arch to maintain industry-leading returns on equity with less risk.

Guidewire Software, Inc. (GWRE) is a leading provider of core systems software to the global P&C insurance industry.
Guidewire is a small player in a vast addressable market and has been benefiting from the inevitable need for P&C insurers to upgrade 30-year-old systems. The company offers best-in-class functionality, as evidenced by its growing installed base and 100% retention rates, and we believe it has a significant amount of off- balance sheet revenue. We think the company’s launch of data and digital applications meaningfully expand the total addressable market, and growing demand for cloud deployments could increase prices by two to three times.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPACEX.A) designs, manufactures, and launches rockets and spacecrafts into space. SpaceX is revolutionizing space technology, including reusable orbital launch systems. In addition, SpaceX is looking to launch a new broadband service from its new satellite constellation.
We believe SpaceX could leverage its unique inventory of reusable rockets to reduce the costs of space launches, capture a growing portion of the available addressable market, and continue to build a track record of success. As launch costs decline, we believe more companies will offer services with space capabilities, increasing the need for rockets. With low launch costs, we expect SpaceX to have an advantage in building its new constellation of satellite-based broadband services leading to potentially taking share in a larger TAM than the rocket launch market.

Penn National Gaming, Inc. (PENN) is the largest and most diversified regional casino operator, with 42 facilities in 19 jurisdictions post its recent Pinnacle, Margaritaville, and Greektown acquisitions. The company has a history of acquiring quality gaming companies at favorable prices that are accretive.
We think Penn is one of the best regional gaming operators with a strong and experienced management team and the highest gaming-tax adjusted margins in the industry. We think there is much potential for it to grow through the acquisition of the Tropicana in Las Vegas, the recent closing of the Pinnacle Entertainment acquisition as well as most recently Margaritaville and Greektown. Penn should generate substantial synergies from all three deals that we expect will add value for shareholders over time through substantial debt reduction and possible share repurchases.