Ascendis Pharma A/S (ASND) Stock Soared on Unexpected Demand

TimesSquare Capital Management, an equity investment management company, released its “U.S. Small Cap Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the quarter the fund returned 5.77% (net), compared to a 7.58% return for the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Despite a decline in many equity markets in January, they rebounded over the following two months, resulting in a robust 2024 first quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

TimesSquare Capital U.S. Small Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks like Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is a biopharmaceutical company. The one-month return of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) was -7.26%, and its shares gained 31.50% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 20, 2024, Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) stock closed at $121.62 per share with a market capitalization of $6.947 billion.

TimesSquare Capital U.S. Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"Our preferences among Health Care stocks are those companies providing novel therapies for unmet needs that deserve premium pricing, or specialized service providers. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of drug candidates. Their Skytrofa drug is commercially available and used to treat growth hormone deficiency in children. Sales of that therapy continue to exceed estimates. Ascendis has also developed TransCon PTH for treating adults with hypoparathyroidism. This is commercially available in Germany and Austria, with U.S. approval expected later this year. The share price of Ascendis Pharma improved by 20% and we trimmed the position on this strength."

A close-up view of a hand manipulating a syringe while delivering TransCon CNP into a tumor.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 30 hedge fund portfolios held Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) at the end of the first quarter which was 26 in the previous quarter.Ascendis Pharma A/S's (NASDAQ:ASND) operating loss in the first quarter 2024 totaled €49.1 million compared to €143.7 million in the first quarter of 2023, due to increased revenue and lower operating expenses. While we acknowledge the potential of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

We discussed Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) in another article and shared the list of fastest growing health tech companies in the world. In the previous quarter, TimesSquare Capital U.S. Small Cap Growth Strategy benefitted from Ascendis Pharma A/S's  (NASDAQ:ASND) 34% gain. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.