Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) is the founder of Baron Capital Management, which offers separately managed accounts, sub-advisory services and mutual funds for domestic and international investors.
His portfolio is composed of 355 stocks with a total value of $25,433 million; during the last quarter, he added 22 new stocks to his portfolio. The following are the largest new buys.
Baron increased his stake by 98.42% in IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) with an impact of 0.90% on his portfolio.
The company develops, manufactures and distributes products and provides services for the veterinary, bioresearch, water, livestock, poultry and dairy markets. It also sells a line of portable electrolytes and blood gas analyzers for the human point-of-care medical diagnostics market.
Due to continued strong gains in instrument consumable and reference lab sales, the company achieved 13% normalized organic growth in CAG Diagnostics recurring revenues during the past quarter. IDEXX reported earnings of 60 cents per share, up 9% from the prior year or 18% adjusted for currency impacts.
Operating margins were up slightly by 0.1% compared to the prior year period, but had a moderate increase in gross margins, which increased 7% compared to the prior year period.
The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 39.80, and has been as high as $76.91 and as low as $73.93 in the last 52 weeks. It is currently 11.53% below its 52-week high and 29.50% above its 52-week low. According to the DCF calculator, the company currently looks overpriced by 108%.
IDEXX has good profitability, growth rate and financial strength. Returns and margins are hitting their best performance in recent company history, and is outperforming 84% of its competitors. ROE is 107.81% and ROA is 13.22%, while operating margin is 17.51% and net-margin is 11.86%. Its EPS grew by 12.50% over the latest five years, EBITDA by 11.60% and revenue by 11.40%. Financially speaking, the company has a weak cash to debt of 0.31 and is rated 6/10.
Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio) is the main guru shareholder of the company with 8.79% of outstanding shares, followed by Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) with 7.79% and Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio) who holds 1.76% of outstanding shares.
Baron increased his stake by 173.66% in Mobileye NV. (MBLY) with an impact of 0.48% on his portfolio.
The company is engaged in the design and development of software and related technologies for camera-based advanced driver assistance systems.
Mobileye had strong performance during the last quarter in which total revenue was up 57% year-over-year and generated $22.8 million in free cash flow.
The stock is trading with a very high P/E ratio of 2093.30, and has been as high as $64.48 and as low as $32.41 in the last year. It is currently 31.82% below its 52-week high and 35.64% above its 52-week low. According to the DCF calculator, the company currently looks overpriced by 14553%.
Mobileye has weak profitability and growth rate. Returns are underperforming 56% of its competitors, while margins are outperforming 70% of its competitors. ROE is 4.07% and ROA is 3.54%, while operating margin is 15.55% and net-margin is 8.51%. Its EPS did not face any change over the latest 12 months, while EBITDA grew by 450% and revenue decreased by 70.60%. Despite this, financial strength is rated 8/10 and the company is out of debt.
Baron is the main shareholder of the company with 1.65% of outstanding shares, followed by Jana Partners (Trades, Portfolio) with 0.46% and PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio) with 0.15%.
He also increased his stake by 83.37% in Inovalon Holdings Inc. (INOV) with an impact of 0.40% on his portfolio.
Inovalon is a technology company that combines advanced cloud-based data analytics and data-driven intervention platforms to achieve meaningful insight and improvement in clinical and quality outcomes, utilization, and financial performance across the healthcare landscape.
It had a 17% year-over-year increase for revenue and adjusted EBITDA. During the second quarter of 2015, Inovalon experienced strong customer contract growth, both in the addition of new partners to Inovalon's client portfolio, and also notably in the number of clients expanding the number of solutions contracted with Inovalon.
The stock is trading with a forward P/E ratio of 28.90, and has been as high as $21.86 and as low as $20.82 in the last 52 weeks. It is currently 37.81% below its 52-week high and 18.05% above its 52-week low.
Inovalon has weak profitability and growth that is rated 4 out of 10. Returns and margins are outperforming 85% of its competitors. ROE is 26.03% and ROA is 12.58% while operating margin is 30.64% and net-margin is 17.32%.
Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) is the main shareholder of the company with 5.34% of outstanding shares, followed by Vanguard Health Care Fund (Trades, Portfolio) with 1.39%.
He increased his stake by 23.70% in Illumina Inc. (ILMN) with an impact of 0.25% on his portfolio.
The company provides sequencing-and array-based solutions for genetic analysis. Its products enabled researchers to explore DNA, helping them create the first map of gene variations associated with health, disease and drug response.
Illumina delivered solid financial results in the second quarter with increasing demand for new products. The company has a 21% increase in the revenue compared to the same quarter of a year before.
The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 53.70, and has been as high as $191.21 and as low as $170.29 in the last 52 weeks. It is currently 27.57% below its 52-week high and 20.96% above its 52-week low. According to the DCF calculator, the company currently looks overpriced by 264%.
Illumina has good profitability, growth rate and financial strength. Returns and margins are hitting their best performance in recent company history, and they are outperforming 91% of its competitors. ROE is 33.57% and ROA is 11.41%, while operating margin is 31.41% and net-margin is 23.45%. Its EPS grew by 26.40% over the last five years, EBITDA by 21.70% and revenue by 19.70%. The company has a cash-to-debt ratio of 1.16, an interest coverage of 12.33 and overall its financial strength is rated 8/10.
Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) is the main shareholder of the company with 3.92% of outstanding shares, followed by Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio) with 3.43% and Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio) with 1.83%.
Baron bought 1,840,000 shares in Press Ganey Holdings Inc. (PGND) with an impact of 0.21% on his portfolio.
The company, through its subsidiaries, is a provider of patient experience measurement, performance analytics and strategic advisory solutions for healthcare organizations. Its solutions enable healthcare providers to identify opportunities to reduce patient suffering and improve their clinical, safety, operational and financial performance.
During the last quarter, revenue had an increase of 13.3% over the year-ago quarter. Compared to 2Q14, adjusted EBITDA increased by 15%.
The stock is trading with a very weak P/E ratio of 93.70, and has been as high as $31.82 and as low as $30.33 in the last 52 weeks. It is currently 11.91% below its 52-week high and 20.18% above its 52-week low.
Press Ganey has weak profitability, growth rate and financial strength. Returns and margins are hitting their worst performance in recent company history and they are under performing 94% of its competitors. ROE is -40.61% and ROA is -12.68%, while operating margin is -3.87% and net-margin is -12.66%. Financially speaking, the company has a weak cash to debt of 0.02 and an overall rating of 6/10.
Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) is the main shareholder of the company with 3.5% of outstanding shares. Second is Howard Marks (Trades, Portfolio) with an easy stake of 0.09% of outstanding shares, followed by Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) with 0.03%.
