Baron Fund, an investment management company, released its Q4 2025 letter for “Baron Asset Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Equities experienced a strong fourth quarter, capping off a volatile year. However, the Russell Midcap Growth Index (the Index) ended the quarter down 3.70%. In this environment, the Baron Asset Fund returned 7.89% (Institutional Shares), surpassing the Index by 11.59 percentage points. Favorable stock selection led to the outperformance of the Fund in the quarter. As of December 31, 2025, the Fund held a total of 53 positions, and the 10 largest holdings represented 52.8% of net assets, and the 20 largest holdings represented 73.3% of net assets. Please review the Fund’s top five holdings to gain insights into their key selections for 2025.
In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Asset Fund highlighted Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) as one of its notable detractors. Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) is a technology company that provides a cloud-based software platform for the life sciences industry. On February 9, 2026, Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) stock closed at $184.61 per share. One-month return of Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) was -19.20%, and its shares are down 21.22% over the past twelve months. Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) has a market capitalization of $30.347 billion.
Baron Asset Fund stated the following regarding Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Shares of Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV), a cloud-based software platform serving the life sciences industry, declined. After a strong performance for much of the year, the stock came under pressure following Veeva’s November quarterly update, in which management tempered expectations for customer retention. The company now expects 14 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies to adopt its next-generation Vault CRM product— down from the 18 customers using the legacy Veeva CRM built on Salesforce. While Veeva’s 2023 decision to terminate its long standing partnership with Salesforce has given the company full control over its product roadmap, enabling faster innovation and expanding its long-term market opportunity, it has introduced head-to-head competition with Salesforce. Since then, Salesforce has announced its own product development efforts and secured several high-profile wins among the top 20 pharmaceutical accounts, prompting the market to reassess the magnitude and duration of near-term competitive risks. We retain long-term conviction in the stock as Veeva continues to experience favorable secular tailwinds and retain confidence in its 2030 financial targets.”
