Billionaires Rob Citrone and Jim Simons are in harmony as far as the future prospects of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN), and Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) are concerned. The above companies were added to the portfolios of both Discovery Capital Management and Renaissance Technologies during the first quarter.
Rob Citrone worked as a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments and Tiger Management before he established Discovery Capital in 1999. The fund’s annualized returns since its inception hover around 17%.
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Simons’ Renaissance Technologies uses high frequency trading to exploit market inefficiencies. The fund charges particularly high fees of 36% for its exceptional returns owing to large transaction costs that go hand-in-hand with its trading strategy.
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While Simons acquired some 1.15 million shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) valued at $428.98 million during the first quarter, Citrone initiated his own long position of 240,800 shares in addition to a call position on 500,000 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) worth about $89.60 million and $186.05 million respectively. The $200.98 billion e-commerce giant is up by a staggering 39.1% year-to-date. Amazon has been under scrutiny for avoiding taxes in European countries by funneling its sales through low-tax Luxembourg. The company has given in to the pressure and has started booking revenue in individual European countries starting on May 1. Other prominent stockholders of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management and Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management with 2.47 million and 2.23 million shares respectively.
A total of 2.65 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) valued at $217.60 million were acquired by Jim Simons’ fund during the first quarter. Citrone’s bet on the company amounted to 686,000 shares valued at $56.40 million. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s stock is up by nearly 25% over the past year. Monthly active users for the company’s social media platform stand at 1.44 billion with mobile accounting for 73% of the company’s ad revenues according to its first quarter financial results. Facebook also reached a new milestone in terms of daily video views for the quarter, which reached four billion. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is the largest stockholder of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) within our database, with 8.11 million shares valued at $666.51 million.
Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) is another new holding of both billionaire managers, with Renaissance Technologies now owning 135,200 shares valued at $157.40 million. Citrone meanwhile acquired some 55,800 shares of his own valued at $64.94 million. Although the $60.69 billion online travel company beat the top and bottom line estimates for its first quarter financial results, Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)’s stock is only up by a modest 2.7% year-to-date. The main reason for this is a rather conservative guidance provided by its management for the next quarter. Lone Pine Capital is the largest stockholder of Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) as well, with 1.33 million shares valued at $1.55 billion at the end of March.
On the healthcare front, both funds have added Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) to their portfolios. Renaissance initiated a position in the company of nearly 359,400 shares valued at $9.33 million, while Discovery Capital’s new stake amounted to 237,000 shares valued at $6.16 million. Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP)’s stock is up by more than 150% so far this year, while Leerink Swank recently initiated coverage on it with an ‘Outperform’ rating and a price target of $37, which offers about 16% upside to the current trading levels. James E. Flynn’s Deerfield Management holds about 12.79 million shares of Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) valued at $332.23 million.
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