An Investor Bets Big on These Five Tech Stocks; Should You Follow Him?

In QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Giovine disclosed a $2.52 million stake that contains 46,915 shares. Qualcomm’s stock has recently taken a hit on the back of disappointing guidance provided by the company for its current fiscal year and is down by 28% year-to-date. However, activist Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners has recently reiterated its bullish position on QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and said that the company is trading at less than ten-times earnings, below the industry average and is therefore much better positioned than its semiconductor peers. JANA Partners held 28.82 million shares of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) at the end of June.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) represents Giovine’s second-largest tech holding, the fund owning 100,116 shares worth $2.89 million as of the end of September. Yahoo’s stock has lost 32% since the beginning of the year, for many reasons, including its large equity position in Alibaba, which has been slumping amid a weak macroeconomic environment. Therefore, the performance of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s stock is highly correlated with Alibaba and the upcoming spinoff of that stake will remove some of the pressure. Activist Jeff Smith of Starboard Value, who played a key role in Yahoo’s decision to spin-off its position in Alibaba, said during a recent interview that the value of the spinoff is currently not reflected in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s stock price. Starboard held 3.55 million shares of Yahoo at the end of June.

Finally, Giovine’s top tech pick is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), in which the fund reported ownership of 47,250 shares worth $5.21 million. Despite being the largest company in terms of market cap, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock is still pretty cheap, trading at around 12-times forward earnings. The tech giant has a large buyback program and pays a decent dividend, which should drive the stock price higher. One of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s biggest fans is billionaire activist Carl Icahn, who during the recent Dealbook conference reaffirmed his stance on the Cupertino company, calling Apple “the greatest company in the world” due to its cheap valuation. However, the low price is due to investors’ concerns over the company’s dependence on a single product, even though so far it has not been a big issue.

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