Baron Real Estate Income Fund (BRIIX)

Americold Realty Trust (COLD) is the world’s largest owner of temperature-controlled warehouses. Americold’s warehouses enable “farm to fork” distribution and ensure freshness, safety, and convenience. The company’s market share is roughly 20% in the U.S. and 4.5% globally, serving over 2,600 customers.
Americold operates in a relatively stable industry, since food consumption is tied to population growth and cold storage is essential for food distribution. Its proprietary data systems are a competitive advantage, in our view. Management believes cash flow could grow by high single digits per year, an attractive rate compared with other REITs. Large acquisitions could also drive growth. We believe the company’s valuation is attractive, its growth prospects are solid, and it benefits from being in a less cyclical business.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is a network neutral operator of 200 data centers across 52 metros and 24 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It provides highly reliable facilities and offers low latency interconnection to and among business partners, networks, and cloud service providers.
We believe Equinix continues to benefit from a number of key long-term trends, including growth in internet traffic, IT outsourcing, cloud computing, and mobility. Equinix began operating as a REIT in early 2015 and, with the improved cost of capital, announced several strategic global acquisitions (doubling topline from 2015 to 2018). We believe these acquisitions will create meaningful synergies and further enhance Equinix's global platform. We also believe Equinix can continue to outgrow the market organically and supplement growth with prudent acquisitions.

MGM Resorts International (MGM) is a casino hospitality company with properties in Macau, Las Vegas, and other regions across the U.S. 80% of its EBITDA is in the U.S., while 20% is from Macau. The company owns a 74.5% stake in gaming REIT MGM Growth Properties and a 56% stake in MGM China.
MGM Resorts has an attractive pipeline of projects, in our view, with ongoing upgrades to its recently opened casino in Massachusetts and the completion of its redeveloped Park MGM casino in Las Vegas. Combined with a recovery in Macau, these projects should add significant value over time, in our view. While the company is levered, we believe it will lower leverage organically as the new projects open and continue to return capital to shareholders through increased dividends and share buybacks.

American Tower Corp. (AMT) is the largest independent wireless tower operator worldwide, with close to 170,000 towers in 13 countries on five continents.
Increasing demand for wireless voice and data coverage is driving leasing activity for wireless carriers. Because zoning for new towers is difficult to obtain, leasing on an existing tower (tenant colocation) is typically the best option. American Tower has been expanding internationally, bringing the U.S. tower model to new markets. We expect new tenants and higher colocation activity to drive continued strong organic cash flow growth. In addition, we believe American Tower will continue to acquire tower portfolios opportunistically.

Prologis, Inc. (PLD) is a real estate investment trust that owns a $40 billion global industrial portfolio. It was formed through the 2011 merger of AMB and legacy ProLogis.
In our view, industrial real estate has attractive fundamentals, with organic growth that is among the highest across all real estate asset types. Strengthening demand, driven by the growth of e-commerce (2/3 of retail growth) and the need for infill locations to service "last mile" delivery, continues to absorb elevated supply deliveries. Given Prologis's assets, markets, management, and balance sheet, we believe the company is well-positioned to continue benefiting from this favorable fundamental backdrop.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (ARE) is the largest pure-play landlord and developer for the life sciences industry. The company designs and improves space for lease to pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies, scientific research institutions, universities, and government institutions.
In our opinion, Alexandria Real Estate is positioned to benefit from the favorable trends of the aging of the U.S. population, ongoing health care needs, new drugs, and more capital infusions into biotech and health care. Core portfolio growth is driven by a mark-to-market growth opportunity, annual rent bumps, and occupancy gains. We think Alexandria has the potential to double in size by building out its development/redevelopment/land holding pipeline.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. (VAC) sells timeshare products, manages resorts, finances consumer purchases, and rents timeshare inventory. It has 100 timeshare resorts in the U.S and recently completed its acquisition of Interval Leisure that should set the company up for accelerated growth.
A strong timeshare market has helped the company generate consistent revenue and earnings even during uncertain times, which has allowed it to produce substantial free cash flow for share buybacks and increased dividends. The Interval Leisure acquisition should be accretive for shareholders and accelerate growth in the years to come, in our view. Management has only outlined cost synergies and we think revenue synergies could be as much as cost if not more over time. This should lead to strong earnings and free cash flow that is not currently being valued by the market.

Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. (HPP) is an office REIT with a 15 million square foot portfolio located mostly in California (75% San Francisco, 17% Los Angeles, 7% Greater Seattle).
Hudson Pacific Properties is a high-quality office REIT that owns office properties in markets with high barriers to entry, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Office real estate fundamentals on the West Coast are superior to those in many East Coast markets, in our view. The company has several levers for growth, including rent bumps, lease-up potential, leases maturing at below market rents, an accretive development pipeline, and an active acquisition pipeline. We believe the valuation is attractive, with the stock trading at a discount.

Penn National Gaming, Inc. (PENN) is the largest and most diversified regional casino operator, with 40 facilities in 18 jurisdictions. The company has a history of acquiring quality gaming companies at favorable prices. 
We think Penn is one of the best regional gaming operators with a strong and experienced management team. We think there is much potential for it to grow through the continued ramp up of a racetrack with slot machines in Massachusetts, the acquisition of the Tropicana in Las Vegas, and the recent closing of the Pinnacle Entertainment acquisition. Penn should generate substantial synergies from the Pinnacle deal that we expect will add significant value for shareholders over time. In addition, Penn is finalizing the purchases of casinos in Louisiana and Detroit.