Edinburgh Partners Likes These Four Tech Stocks, but Dumps Microsoft

One of Scotland’s largest investment houses, Edinburgh Partners was founded in 2003 and is currently run by Sandy Nairn, a co-founder of the firm and a veteran of the industry. Edinburgh Partners has approximately $11 billion in assets under management and its equity portfolio was valued at more than $887 million at the end of the first quarter of 2016. The portfolio contains a large number of consumer discretionary and technology stocks, which amount to 42% and 30% of the portfolio respectively. Insider Monkey calculates a fund manager’s stock picking ability by looking at the weighted average returns of the fund’s long positions in companies with a market cap above $1 billion, based on the size of those positions at the beginning of each quarter. In the case of Edinburgh Partners 38 of the 40 positions reported as of the end of the fourth quarter have qualified under our requirements and generated a return of 2.7% during the first quarter of 2016. In this article we’ll take a look at five top tech stocks from Edinburgh Partners’ equity portfolio heading into the second quarter.

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Top Tech Holding

During the first quarter, Sandy Nairn and his team decided to increase their stake in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) by 5% to 1.65 million shares worth roughly $84.4 million. Hedge fund sentiment towards Qualcomm was unaffected during the 2015 fourth quarter, with the number of long positions staying unchanged at 68. This makes the stock one of the most popular among elite hedge funds. Billionaire Ken Fisher also likes QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and has boosted his investment in the company by 2% over the first quarter to 9.55 million shares valued at $488 million. Qualcomm opened lower today as investors were disappointed by the company’s outlook for the fiscal third quarter. The chip maker reported second quarter results on Wednesday after the market close, beating analysts estimates. Revenues came in at $5.55 billion, down by 19.5% year over year and above the consensus of $5.34 billion. Adjusted earnings stood at $1.04 per share, higher than analysts’ projections of $0.96 per share. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s forward guidance, however, fell short of expectations, as the management predicts third quarter earnings to range between $5.2 billion and $6 billion, while earnings are expected to be between $0.90 and $1 per share. Analysts, on the other hand, were looking for $5.6 billion in revenues and earnings per share of $1.02.