Top Tech Stocks of David Blood and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management

GIM also decreased its stake in another of its top tech stocks, this time the California-based Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM), by 6% to 6.34 million shares with a value of $439.85 million. Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM), founded in 1985, and with a market cap of almost $113 billion has been having a poor run of late, posting a negative return of 6.9% during 2015, and an even worse 12-month performance of -14%. Those negative returns are due to the loss of Samsung as a client and trouble with regulatory matters in the Chinese market, troubles that are now said to be resolved.

Qualcomm, Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) has also suffered due to major smartphone companies like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung switching to in-house chip production, cutting off an important market segment for the company. However, analysts say that the robotics startup program that Qualcomm has launched may grow into an important new business segment for it. Furthermore, Qualcomm’s announcement regarding an increased dividend payment of $1.92 per share annually, which is an increase of 14%, has made the market moderately positive regarding the future of the stock, as has its $15 billion share buyback plan. It seems like JANA Partners, which we also track, agrees, since it has built a 28.54 million-share stake in Qualcomm and laid out steps the company could take to improvement profitability and shareholder returns. Orbis Investment led by Willam B. Gray also seemingly believes in Qualcomm’s direction, as it upped its stake by 50% to 11.16 million shares during the first quarter.

Disclosure: None