Swedish Firm Zenit Asset Management Betting Big On Tech, Money Lending

#2 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)

Shares held (as of September 30): 1 million
Total Value (as of September 30): $59.55 million
Percent of Portfolio (as of September 30): 10.39%

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has had a roller-coaster year. After being cold for the first three quarters of the year, Alibaba shares have suddenly found their stride. At a little over $84 per share, shares are up by more than 42% from their lows in late-September. Investors are buying because Alibaba’s monetization rate is creeping up, with the latest quarter’s blended monetization rate at 2.42%, up by 0.12 percentage points year-over-year. The increased monetization rate shows the company is successfully adapting to mobile. Because monetization is up, Alibaba’s EPS and revenue beat expectations for its second quarter of fiscal year 2016, its most recently completed quarter. If the Shanghai index continues to stabalize, Alibaba shares could continue to trend higher in the coming quarters. Rob Citrone‘s Discovery Capital Management owned 6.52 million Alibaba shares at the end of June.

#1 Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)

Shares held (as of September 30): 4.42 million
Total Value (as of September 30): $127.5 million
Percent of Portfolio (as of September 30): 22.25%

Since much of Yahoo’s stock’s value and volatility is in its Alibaba stake, and Alibaba shares have been red-hot in the past month-and-a-half, Yahoo has also been hot, with shares rallying by 27% from their late-September lows. Investors would be happier if the IRS declared Yahoo’s Alibaba spin-off as tax-free, but they will have to wait for now. With its hundreds of millions of active monthly users, Yahoo.com has plenty of potential that management could try to unlock in the meantime. Given Yahoo Sports’ extensive reach, a potential Yahoo competitor to Draft Kings and FanDuel could improve sentiment, and the timing appears to be right for such a move following consumer confidence in those two services eroding in the wake of a scandal involving employees of each site using inside information to win money on the other, which also led to a spotlight being shone on the industry and Nevada subsequently banning daily fantasy sports. Zenit Asset Management increased its position in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) by 242% to 4.42 million shares in the third quarter. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital owned 2.03 million Yahoo shares at the end of June.

Disclosure: None