Baron Focused Growth Fund Retail Shs
BFGFX
NASDAQ- -
USD
- -
- -
Capital Structure
FRC
•
in mil. unless spec.Working Capital
FRC
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in mil. unless spec.Growth Rates
FRC
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in mil. unless spec.Quarterly Revenue
FRC
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in mil. unless spec.Quarterly Earnings Per Share
FRC
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in mil. unless spec.Quarterly Dividends Per Share
FRC
•
in mil. unless spec.- Sector
- Financial Services
- Industry
- Asset Management
- Address
- 767 Fifth Ave New York NY United States of America 10153
- IPO Date
- Jul 1, 2008
- CIK
- 0001217673
- Website
- baroncapitalgroup.com
- Similar Companies
- Business
- Baron Focused Growth Fund Retail Shares (BFGFX) is a non-diversified open-end mutual fund that seeks long-term capital appreciation through a high-conviction portfolio of equity securities, primarily common stocks of U.S. small- and mid-sized growth companies with significant growth potential. The fund offers retail shares with a net expense ratio of approximately 1.31%, alongside institutional shares (BFGIX), and invests across sectors including consumer discretionary, financials, industrials, communication services, information technology, and health care; top holdings as of late 2025 include Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (11.4%), Tesla Inc. (9.1%), IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (6.2%), Spotify Technology S.A. (5.4%), and Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (4.8%), with a focus on businesses exhibiting durable competitive advantages, strong management, and above-average long-term growth prospects such as recurring revenue models, technological innovation, and market share gains. Managed by co-portfolio managers Ronald Baron and David Baron since the retail share class inception on June 30, 2008 (with fund origins dating to May 31, 1996 as a private partnership), it maintains a low turnover of 6.90% (3-year average), 30 issuers comprising 99.4% of net assets totaling $2.81 billion as of September 30, 2025, and a high active share of 98.1% versus the Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark. Baron Focused Growth Fund operates under Baron Capital Group, Inc., an asset management firm founded in 1982 and headquartered in New York City, which emphasizes long-term, fundamental active growth equity strategies across mutual funds, ETFs, and institutional solutions targeting U.S. and global investors. The fund's portfolio construction is bottom-up, stock-by-stock, with embedded risk management to minimize permanent capital loss, resulting in superior risk-adjusted returns including a Sharpe ratio outperforming the benchmark over 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods, lower downside capture (e.g., 57-82%), and annualized returns of 13.68% since inception through September 30, 2025. In recent developments, the fund reported strong quarterly performance in Q2 and Q3 2025, with gains of approximately 4.83% in Q3 (institutional shares) driven by disruptive growth investments like Spotify and Tesla, though it trailed the benchmark amid economic slowdown concerns affecting consumer discretionary holdings; it continued emphasizing high-quality metrics such as superior EPS growth forecasts (15.6%), ROIC, and margins relative to the Russell 2500 Growth Index. Baron Capital launched a suite of active ETFs in December 2025, including the Baron SMID Cap ETF (BCSM) and others, expanding access to similar growth strategies in exchange-traded formats while building on the Focused Growth Fund's legacy. Portfolio adjustments in 2025 balanced exposure toward recurring revenue businesses like MSCI Inc., Verisk Analytics Inc., and CoStar Group Inc., alongside real asset plays such as Airbnb Inc. and Vail Resorts, to enhance predictability amid macro uncertainty.