Billionaire Jim Simons’ Massive New Tech Positions

A total of 2.16 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) valued at $177.39 million were acquired by RenTec during the second quarter. This year has been tough for the $188.71 billion e-commerce juggernaut as its stock price has slid by more than 28% on a year-to-date basis. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has failed to deliver on The Street’s expectations for its fiscal first quarter, which ended in June, as it reported revenues of $3.27 billion, which were $120 million lighter than estimates and which marked a 28% slide on a year-over-year basis. The top line growth was the slowest in three years. The EPS of $0.59, however, was $0.01 ahead of estimates. Among the funds that we trac, Viking Global, which is led by Andreas Halvorsen, is a prominent shareholder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), though it reduced its holding in the company by 13% during the June quarter to 6.04 million shares valued at $497.05 million.

RenTec initiated a position in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) of some 939,300 shares valued at $58.83 million, and representing 0.13% of its portfolio. So far this year the stock of the $97.46 billion semiconductor company providing wireless telecommunications and services has depreciated by nearly 17%. In comparison, the Communication Equipment industry has posted average gains of 1.38% during the same period. That might be about to change considering Morgan Stanley’s recent upgrade of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ with a price target of $75 providing about 23% upside to the current trading levels. Analysts are very positive about the company’s new product in the graphics arena, Snapdragon 820, which they believe is ahead of smartphone graphics silicon currently powering Samsung and Apple devices. Barry Rosenstein‘s JANA Partners has QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) at the top of its equity portfolio after adding some 281,700 shaers to the holding in the second quarter, giving the fund 28.82 million shares of the company valued at $1.80 billion. Rosenstein is also actively seeking change at the company through his large activist position.

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