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Baron Global Advantage Strategy

Symbol GLOBALADV
IN
International

Total Strategy Assets

$863.17 M

As of 03/31/2024

Inception date

05/31/2012

Performance

PerformanceAs of 03/31/2024

YTD11 Year3 Years5 Years10 yearsSince Inception
05/31/2012
Baron Global Advantage Strategy (Net)3.56%21.58%-12.78%6.21%10.13%12.47%
Baron Global Advantage Strategy (Gross)3.76%22.55%-12.08%7.06%10.69%12.95%
MSCI ACWI Index8.20%23.22%6.96%10.92%8.66%10.58%
MSCI ACWI Growth Index9.50%28.21%6.74%13.57%11.02%12.43%

Performance InformationAs of 03/31/2024

3 Years5 Years10 Years
Standard Deviation (%)28.2727.1622.50
Sharpe Ratio-0.550.150.39
Alpha (%)-18.69-3.901.11
Beta1.351.141.18
R-Squared (%)62.5155.7759.90
Tracking Error (%)18.2418.2414.49
Information Ratio-1.08-0.260.10
Upside Capture (%)76.0094.71113.41
Downside Capture (%)162.95113.07111.34
Except for Standard Deviation and Sharpe Ratio, the performance based-characteristics above were calculated relative to the Baron Global Advantage Strategy's benchmark MSCI ACWI Growth Index. Performance statistics for additional periods will be provided on request. Source FactSet: SPAR.

Portfolio Holdings & Characteristics

HoldingsAs of 05/31/2024

HoldingSector% of Net Assets
NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) sells semiconductors, systems, and software for accelerated computing, gaming, and artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI).
Demand for computer power has doubled every one to two years, driven by recent developments in GenAI, yet supply growth has decelerated dramatically due to the slowdown in Moore's law. NVIDIA’s accelerated architecture enables continued growth in processing power 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 Technology11.1%
MercadoLibre, Inc.
MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) is the largest e-commerce company in Latin America. The company operates the MercadoLibre e-commerce marketplace, the Mercado Pago fintech platform, and the Mercado Envios suite of shipping solutions for sellers on its platform.
MercadoLibre benefits from the emergence of two secular trends: e-commerce and digital payments. The company has a significant first-mover advantage and is investing aggressively in logistics to widen its competitive moat. Latin America is a predominantly cash-based economy with e-commerce penetration under 20%, and MercadoLibre has an attractive, asset-light marketplace business model. We believe its logistics network will become a key competitive advantage at scale, and we see a significant opportunity in Mercado Pago off-platform.
Consumer Discretionary10.1%
Coupang, Inc.
Coupang, Inc. (CPNG) is Korea's largest e-commerce company. 
Coupang's proprietary logistics system enables faster delivery times and easier returns versus those of its competitors, which we think should drive superior customer retention, lifetime value, and network effects, allowing Coupang to become highly profitable in the intermediate term. Long term, we believe Coupang will become the dominant player in Korean e-commerce and among the country's largest retailers. We also like its prospects in third-party fulfillment and advertising.
Consumer Discretionary7.1%
Shopify Inc.
Shopify Inc. (SHOP) is a cloud-based software provider offering an operating system for multi-channel commerce. The company serves over two million merchants that processed $235 billion of gross merchandise volume in 2023, making Shopify the second largest e-commerce player in the U.S.
Shopify has developed a scalable platform that offers an end-to-end commerce solution to merchants of all sizes, including merchants that sell offline, international merchants, and B2B merchants. Shopify’s aggregate scale, innovation, and ecosystem of partners enable merchants to take payments, receive loans, and easily sell internationally. With less than 2% share of $20 trillion in global commerce, it has a long runway for growth.
Information Technology6.6%
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) designs, manufactures, and launches rockets, satellites, and spacecrafts. Its ultimate goal is to make humanity multi-planetary. Products include reusable orbital launch offering and a broadband service leveraging its satellite constellation, Starlink.
We believe SpaceX will continue to drive down the cost of space launches and capture market share with its unique, reliable, and improving reusable launch capabilities. As costs decline, we also expect demand for access to space to increase. By leveraging its launch cost leadership, vertical integration, and innovative design approach, we think SpaceX will have an advantage in building and operating its rapidly expanding satellite-based broadband services, creating an even more attractive growth profile for the company.
Industrials5.5%
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) is a cloud-architected SaaS cybersecurity vendor offering endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services.
We like CrowdStrike for its impressive technological differentiation, high growth, and strong management team. The company’s moat derives from a lightweight software agent and a cloud-based threat graph database that allow it to access, sort, and protect customer data it can then use to launch new products and improve and automate its services. CrowdStrike is disrupting the end point protection market and extending its reach into cloud workloads. We believe the company can grow rapidly given its visionary management team and large total addressable market.
Information Technology4.7%
Cloudflare, Inc.
Cloudflare, Inc. (NET) wants to build a faster, more secure internet. Its network spans over 300 cities in more than 100 countries and connects with more than 10,000 ISPs, cloud providers, SaaS services, and enterprises globally. Its edge network operates within 100 milliseconds of 99% of the developed world.
Cloudflare's technology is 30% to 50% cheaper than that of peers, while its gross margins are 1,000 to 2,000 basis points higher. It is widely respected among developers, who migrate it from personal to enterprise use. These advantages allow Cloudflare to service about 25% of global internet traffic. We believe Cloudflare will maintain 30%-plus growth for several years given its unique technology and go-to-market strategy that is disrupting a $40 billion market, along with the potential to attack a nascent Edge Computing market that could grow to $10 billion in four years.
Information Technology4.2%
ASML Holding N.V.
ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) designs and manufactures semiconductor production equipment. It specializes and is the clear market leader in photolithography equipment, where light sources are used to photo-reactively create patterns on wafers that ultimately become printed circuits.
ASML has always been a leader in the photolithography space with its equipment used by nearly all major semiconductor manufacturers. It has very strong share in deep ultraviolet photolithography and 100% market share in leading-edge-critical extreme ultra-violet (EUV) equipment needed to extend the price/performance/efficiency curve of ever-shrinking semiconductor chip sizes. In our view, its next generation high-NA EUV will extend its technological advantage and positions the company for continued lithography dominance at the leading edge. 
Information Technology4.0%
Snowflake Inc.
Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) provides a cloud-native data platform with use cases across data analytics, data sharing, and recently added transactional workloads. It enables storage and computation across leading public cloud providers and simpler and cheaper deployments with high concurrency usage.
Snowflake is leveraging its cloud-native architecture to offer more affordable, scaled, secure, and easy-to-use functionality that is lacking in many competing solutions. Its early-mover advantage, broad vision, strong brand, growing system, and talented management should enable growth within a large addressable market. In addition, we expect Snowflake’s new CEO and product launches to allow the company to better address growing data needs across generative AI workloads. Snowflake's unique marketplace and data sharing offerings should also accelerate usage among customers.
Information Technology3.9%
Wix.com Ltd.
Wix.com Ltd. (WIX) provides software to help micro-businesses build and maintain websites and operate their businesses. Wix has over 200 million registered users and over 5.5 million premium users.
Wix is a leading do-it-yourself website-design software, targeting a large market, as most businesses use professional website development services. We think Wix has strong competitive advantages, driven by product innovation, data-driven distribution, and its leading brand. Wix's technological edge, supported by over 1,500 R&D personnel, results in fast iteration with first-to-market features and vertical offerings. Wix's recently introduced do-it-for-me solutions open a large new TAM for it to address.
Information Technology3.8%
Total
Total
61.0%
Long Equity Exposure
Long Equity Exposure
100.0%
Cash & Equivalents
Cash & Equivalents
0
Top Ten Holdings, Portfolio Holdings, and Sector Breakdown based on net assets. Positions smaller than 0.05% round to 0.0%. 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 03/31/2024

Top ContributorsAverage WeightContribution
NVIDIA Corporation11.04%6.82%
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.4.12%0.91%
Codere Online Luxembourg, S.A.1.05%0.82%
ASML Holding N.V.3.30%0.80%
Cloudflare, Inc.5.06%0.76%
Source:  FactSet PA.  Based on the gross performance results of the representative account. 

GICS Sector BreakdownAs of 05/31/2024

Portfolio Characteristics

Information Technology

50.4%

Consumer Discretionary

27.4%

Industrials

10.0%

Financials

7.5%

Health Care

4.5%

Materials

0.1%

Communication Services

-

05/31/2024
Systems Software18.50%
Broadline Retail 17.20%
Semiconductors11.90%
Internet Services & Infrastructure10.40%
Aerospace & Defense5.50%
Biotechnology4.50%
IT Consulting & Other Services4.50%
Automobile Manufacturers4.30%
Transaction & Payment Processing Services 4.00%
Semiconductor Materials & Equipment 4.00%
Consumer Finance3.50%
Air Freight & Logistics2.50%
Restaurants2.50%
Education Services1.70%
Casinos & Gaming1.60%
048121620
Systems Software18.50%
Broadline Retail 17.20%
Semiconductors11.90%
Internet Services & Infrastructure10.40%
Aerospace & Defense5.50%
Biotechnology4.50%
IT Consulting & Other Services4.50%
Automobile Manufacturers4.30%
Transaction & Payment Processing Services 4.00%
Semiconductor Materials & Equipment 4.00%
Consumer Finance3.50%
Air Freight & Logistics2.50%
Restaurants2.50%
Education Services1.70%
Casinos & Gaming1.60%
048121620
United States45.10%
Argentina12.00%
Netherlands9.50%
Korea7.10%
Canada6.60%
India6.00%
Israel5.30%
United Kingdom2.60%
Poland2.50%
Brazil1.70%
Spain1.60%
081624324048
United States45.10%
Argentina12.00%
Netherlands9.50%
Korea7.10%
Canada6.60%
India6.00%
Israel5.30%
United Kingdom2.60%
Poland2.50%
Brazil1.70%
Spain1.60%
081624324048

Portfolio CharacteristicsAs of 03/31/2024

Baron Global Advantage StrategyMSCI ACWI Index
Inception DateMay 31, 2012
# of Issuers / % of Net Assets35 / 99.7%
Turnover (3 Year Average)12.76%
Active Share95.1%
Median Market Cap$19.26 billion$12.20 billion
Weighted Average Market Cap$322.73 billion$524.69 billion
EPS Growth (3-5 year forecast)27.2%13.2%
Price/Earnings Ratio (trailing 12-month)62.120.9
Price/Sales Ratio3.81.9
Price/Book Ratio4.92.6
Total Strategy Assets$863.17 million
Price/Book Ratio and Price/Sales Ratio are calculated using the Weighted Harmonic Average. Source: FactSet PA. Internal valuation metrics may differ.