Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock price dropped by nearly 11.84% during Q1. Two Sigma’s second-largest stock holding contained 3.09 million shares valued at $143.69 million. The tech giant is in a transition phase under CEO Satya Nadella as it reduces its reliance on Windows and is venturing into the cloud and mobility space along with other promising products such as its recently launched Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 tablets. Among the billionaires that we track, 14 had placed bets on the stock, with an aggregate investment of $2.63 billion at the end of 2014. Ken Fisher was one of them as his firm Fisher Asset Management held 17.6 million shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) valued at $818.53 million.
Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) slid steeply by 17.34% during the first quarter. The manufacturer of hard drives and solid state drives also felt the chill of declining PC sales during Q1. Western Digital has been connected to SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) recently, which according to some analysts is the perfect buyout target for it considering its low trading levels. The acquisition also makes sense as Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) has been trying to make inroads in the flash memory territory through its other acquisitions. Overdeck and Siegel held 1.02 million shares valued at $113.23 million of Western in their fund’s portfolio. Other prominent investors in the company include Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management and Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group.
Besides the announcement of the spinoff of its Alibaba’s stake, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has provided little evidence of improvement in its core operations during the first quarter, and its stock depreciated by 12.02% during this period. The fall came despite the company adding $2 billion to its buyback program, which currently stands at $2.73 billion. Two Sigma’s stake in the tech company was comprised of 2.13 million shares valued at $107.56 million. James Dinan’s York Capital Management sees better days for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) ahead as it initiated a position in the company with 9.40 million shares valued at $474.69 million during the fourth quarter.
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s shares slumped by 22.51% during the first quarter and the company went on to provide a lower guidance than anticipated for its 2015 fiscal third quarter. However, the future for the manufacturer of semiconductor devices looks bright in the long run as it recently announced the arrival of its 3-D NAND technology, the world’s highest density flash memory. Besides Two Sigma, which held 2.99 million shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) valued at $113.23 million, another prominent stockholder was billionaire Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group.
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