10 E-commerce and Tech Stocks to Buy Now According to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management

In this article, we will discuss 10 e-commerce and tech stocks to buy now according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management.

Christopher Lyle, an alumnus of Stanford University, worked as an equity analyst at Bain Capital Public Equity LP from 2004 to 2009, where high net worth investors were provided with custom portfolios of liquid assets. Lyle founded SCGE Management L.P in November 2008. SCGE management is a well-reputed investment advisory hedge fund based out of Menlo Park, California. The hedge fund’s investments range from public to late-stage private companies. It currently holds popular stocks in different sectors, including communication, IT, consumer discretionary, utilities, and telecommunication.

SCGE Management’s investing strategy is based on bottom-up stock picking. The fund monitors exposure to different sectors and geographical areas but does not make decisions on a top-down basis.

Some of Christopher Lyle’s popular stock picks as of the second quarter of 2021 include Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP), Airbnb, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB), and Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Based on the latest 13F holdings for the second quarter of 2021, SCGE Management holds 894,000 shares in Shopify Inc. worth $1.3 billion. Shopify Inc. is a multinational Canadian e-commerce platform for retail point of sale systems and online stores. For the second quarter of 2021, the company posted earnings per share of $2.24, beating analysts’ estimates by a considerable margin of $1.28.

In Airbnb, Inc., Christopher Lyle owns close to 1.7 million shares which cover 2.41% of the fund’s portfolio. Airbnb, Inc. has a market capitalization of $106.8 billion. As of the second quarter of 2021, 58 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database of 873 funds held stakes in ABNB, compared to 52 funds in the first quarter. Airbnb, Inc., amongst other travel-related companies, was hit hard by Covid-19. The company has managed to recover its occupancy rate to 61% which is now just 8.9% lower than the 2019 rate.

Amazon.com, Inc is another well-known stock held by the SCGE management as of the second quarter. The hedge fund owns 120,800 shares in Amazon.com, Inc, worth $415.6 million. The investment covers 3.89% of the fund’s portfolio.

Our Methodology

For this article, we picked top 10 ecommerce and tech stocks from the second quarter portfolio of Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management.

Why should we pay attention to SCGE’s stock picks? Insider Monkey’s research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 86 percentage points since March 2017. Between March 2017 and July 2021, our monthly newsletter’s stock picks returned 186.1%, vs. 100.1% for the SPY. Our stock picks outperformed the market by 86 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to. You can subscribe to our free newsletter on our homepage to receive our stories in your inbox.

10 E-commerce and Tech Stocks to Buy Now According to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management

10. RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $436,742,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 4.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 47

RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG)  is a California-based company providing communication solutions to businesses around the globe. RingCentral, Inc. was founded by Vlad Shmunis in 1999. Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management holds 1.5 million shares of RingCentral that amount to over $436.7 million and 4.09% of the 13F portfolio.

RingCentral, Inc. has a market capitalization of $20.55 billion and posted earnings per share of $0.32, higher by $0.04 than analysts’ estimate, in the second quarter of 2021. On September 15, it was announced that RingCentral, Inc. was granted a unified license by the Indian Department of Telecommunications. This would make RingCentral, Inc. the first global cloud provider to be offering Unified communication services to clients with businesses in India.

RingCentral, Inc. saw a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. Based on the data of the 873 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, the number of hedge fund positions decreased to 47 at the end of the second quarter of 2021 compared to 51 positions in the first quarter.

In the Q2 2021 Investor Letter, Baron Opportunity Fund mentioned RingCentral, Inc.. Here’s what the fund said:

“RingCentral, Inc. has been a three-year portfolio holding and remains a leader in the cloud unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) space, which includes voice, video, messaging, and call center services. But after posting its third quarter in a row of accelerating revenue growth in the first quarter, RingCentral’s shares began to sell off on fears around heightened competition with both Microsoft Teams, of which RingCentral is a partner, and with Zoom Communications, a former partner who has launched its own voice communications offering. Shares sold off further during the period with the rotation out of secular growth names into cyclicals. We used the pullback in the shares to add significantly to our position given RingCentral’s best-in-class UCaaS technology, including five 9’s contractual service commitments (fully operational 99.999% of the time) for voice, which is orders of magnitude above its competitors; presence in roughly 40 countries; data governance and security requirements; number portability with all the relevant domestic and international carriers; and positioning as the Gartner Magic Quadrant UCaaS Leader. The UCaaS market is still quite early in its adoption curve, with only about 3% penetration of the roughly 400 million existing business landline seats in operation today. We believe RingCentral is in a solid position to capture meaningful share of this market, with its exclusive partnerships with legacy landline players like Avaya, Atos, and Alcatel, which effectively gives it a “hunting license” for about half of those 400 million legacy seats, leveraging joint go-to-market efforts with each partner. We remain confident that RingCentral is well positioned to achieve at least 30% top-line growth for years to come, along with steadily improving operating margins and free cash flow generation.”

9. Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $437,243,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 4.09%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57

Okta, Inc. is a cloud software provider based in San Francisco. It offers automated user management, integration, mobile identification, multifactor authentication, and reporting software. Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) serves customers worldwide. It scored impressive digits in the last quarter of 2021. Its fiscal year 2021 revenue totaled $835 million and grew 43% year-over-year, while the subscription revenue grew 44% year-over-year.

Based on the data of the 873 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, the number of hedge fund positions in Okta, Inc. increased from 48 in the first quarter of 2021 to 57 in the second quarter.  SCGE Management is a leading shareholder in Okta, Inc. with around 1.8 million shares worth $437.2 million. It represents 4.09% of the fund’s portfolio.

Besides, Okta, Inc., DoorDash, Inc. (NYSE: DASH), Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO), and HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE: HUBS) are few of the best e-commerce and tech stocks to buy according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management.

Lakehouse Capital discussed its stance on Okta, Inc. in their Q2 2021 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“The Fund held 20 positions as of the end of June and exited four during the year (including) Okta. The companies we exited were sold almost entirely on the basis of their valuations getting stretched well past their norms and to levels where the return profile no longer offered the asymmetric upside that led us to invest in the first place. We dislike selling on valuation as great growth companies are hard to find and letting winners run is an important facet of a winning growth strategy, however, we’re not gluttons for punishment either and in each of those cases we redeployed capital towards other high-quality growth companies with less demanding valuations.”

8. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $457,830,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 4.28%
Number of Hedge fund holders: 91

ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE: NOW) is a US-based software company that develops cloud-based computing platforms to assist companies with managing digital workflows for enterprise operations. It facilitates customers throughout the United States. The company’s market capitalization is $130.05 billion.

SCGE Management’s investment in ServiceNow, Inc. covers 4.28% of the portfolio through a total of 833,100 shares. Based on the data of the 873 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, the number of hedge fund positions in ServiceNow, Inc. decreased from 98 in the first quarter of 2021 to 91 in the second quarter. Baron Opportunity Fund shared insights on the company in their Q1 2021 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“We believe short-term focused investors and consensus often miss the longer-term strength and durability of growth and business-model efficiency (earnings and free cash flow margins) of truly special businesses. An example of this is ServiceNow, a SaaS-industry leader and pioneer, and a long-time Fund investment. As shown in the table below, over the seven years from March 2014 through March 2021, ServiceNow experienced eight multiple declines that averaged –32%, ranging from a low of –19% to a high of –52%.

But during that period, ServiceNow demonstrated compounding revenue performance and stronger operating leverage and FCF generation than expected by consensus. The table below shows the first quarter 2014 projections of one of the top software analysts on the Street, Keith Weiss of Morgan Stanley, versus what ServiceNow achieved.

As you can see, over this three-year period, ServiceNow beat revenue expectations by $315 million, or 29%, and generated FCF margins of 23%, trouncing estimates by $186 million, or 138%.The compounding effects of seven years of strong revenue growth and FCF generation drove ServiceNow’s share price to increase from $70.03 on March 5, 2014 to $500.11 on March 31, 2021, a 32% annualized return. A 7-bagger!

ServiceNow delivered these point-a-to-point-b returns despite the eight multiple pullbacks described above, including the one that occurred towards the end of the first quarter. The power of faster-for-longer, cash-generative business models.”

Apart from Servicenow, Inc., DoorDash, Inc., Twilio Inc., and HubSpot, Inc. are few of the best e-commerce and tech stocks to buy according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management.

7. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $523,498,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 4.9%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 143

Paypal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) is a US-based multinational company that operates as financial technology, facilitating online payment systems in the majority of the countries around the globe. The company has a market capitalization of about $332.5 billion. PYPL has a price-to-earnings ratio of about 67.50, which is high enough to suggest that investors expect high earnings growth from the company’s stock.

Paypal Holdings, Inc. has maintained its position in 143 hedge funds as of the second quarter of 2021. Qualivian Investment Partners mentioned PayPal Holdings, Inc. in the Q2 2021 investor letter and discussed its stance on the firm. Here’s what the fund said:

PayPal: The company reported a slightly disappointing quarter with revenues growing 19%, missing on the average revenue per transaction due to the accelerated decline in eBay transactions, the higher mix of Braintree transactions, and other impacts from hedging and F/X translations. Given the stock’s significant outperformance in 2020 and heightened expectations coming into the quarter, the stock has been consolidating since the earnings report. Long term we remain bullish on PayPal, given the company’s continued growth in eCommerce end markets, as well as the continued share gains of digital payments/wallets over paper payments.”

Just like PayPal Holdings, Inc., DoorDash, Inc., Twilio Inc., and HubSpot, Inc. are few of the best e-commerce and tech stocks to buy according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management.

6. Coupang Inc. (NYSE:CPNG)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $597,750,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 5.59%
Number of Hedge fund holders: 33

Coupang, Inc. (NYSE: CPNG) is a South Korean e-commerce company that serves as the largest online marketplace in South Korea. The company was founded in 2010 and is placed sixth on the list of 10 e-commerce and tech stocks to buy according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management.

The company has a $51.58 billion market capitalization. Its revenue has observed an upward momentum soaring from $4 billion in 2018 to $12 billion in 2020. While the revenue recorded of $4.48 billion for the second quarter of 2021 was in line with the expectations, Coupang, Inc. missed the EPS estimate by $0.16. As of the second quarter of 2021, 33 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database of 873 funds held stakes in CPNG, compared to 40 funds in the first quarter.

SCGE Management has around 14.3 million shares in Coupang, Inc. worth $597.8 million. The investment covers 5.59% of the fund’s portfolio.

5. Sea Limited (NYSE:SE)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $619,172,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 5.8%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 104

Sea Limited is a Singapore-based consumer internet company that has developed an integrated platform consisting of digital entertainment, electronic commerce, and digital financial services. Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) observed a loss of $0.61 per share in the second quarter of 2021 and missed the EPS estimate by $0.12.

Hayden Capital shared its stance on Sea Limited in their Q4 2020 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“Sea Ltd (SE): When I wrote our Q4 2019 letter about Shopee launching a Brazilian business, it seemed very few investors or competitors knew or cared.

A year ago, I wrote: “This is the first test for the e-commerce marketplace outside of its Southeast Asia home base. Will the platform’s fun and addicting features overcome a lack of local knowledge and presence? It’s hard to predict consumer behavior and how accepting users will be to a platform – especially one that’s a foreign culture and 10,000 miles away. The only way to know is to experiment and watch the results closely.

Empirically though, it seems that what consumers find entertaining in Asia, generally translates well to Brazil (and Shopee really is as much an entertainment platform, as an e-commerce one)…” (Click here to see the full text)

4. DoorDash, Inc. (NYSE:DASH)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $763,986,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 7.15%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45

DoorDash Inc. is a US-based online food ordering and delivery platform. With a 56% market share, it emerges as the largest food delivery company in the United States. Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management holds 4.3 million shares in DoorDash, Inc. worth $764 million. The investment forms 7.15% of the hedge fund’s portfolio, meriting its inclusion in the list of 10 e-commerce and tech stocks to buy now according to Christopher Lyle SCGE Management.

DoorDash, Inc. witnessed a bullish sentiment. As of the second quarter of 2021, 45 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database of 873 funds held stakes in DASH, compared to 38 funds in the first quarter. DoorDash, Inc. has also shown stronger than expected revenues over Q2 2021 with sales rising 83% year-over-year to about $1.2 billion. However, the company missed the EPS estimate by $0.02 for the second quarter of 2021.

3. HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE:HUBS)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $820,470,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 7.68%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54

HubSpot, Inc. provides cloud-based platforms to huge enterprises for operations including marketing, sales, and customer services. Based on the data of the 873 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 54 hedge funds were bullish on the stock, as of the second quarter of 2021, in comparison to 46 in the first quarter. The most valuable stake in HubSpot, Inc. is currently held by Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management worth over $820 million.

In their investor letter for Q2 of 2021, Wasatch Core Growth Fund shed some light on HubSpot, Inc.. Here’s what the fund said:

“Our purchases during the quarter were balanced with a similar number of sales, including HubSpot, Inc. (HUBS). The company provides a cloud-based, integrated marketing and sales platform that helps in lead generation and maintaining a presence on social media. Although we’re still extremely impressed with HubSpot, we sold the stock because its market cap, over $25 billion, became rather large for the Fund. Within other Wasatch funds with a larger-cap focus, we still enthusiastically own the company.”

2. Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $1,096,987,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 10.27%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 98

Twilio Inc. is an American cloud communication platform with a market capitalization of $62.51 billion. Christopher Lyle’s SCGE management has a stake worth over $1.09 billion in the company which accounts for 10.27% of the hedge fund portfolio.

Lakehouse Capital shared some insights on the company in their Q2, 2021 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“The Fund held 20 positions as of the end of June and exited four during the year (including) Twilio. The companies we exited were sold almost entirely on the basis of their valuations getting stretched well past their norms and to levels where the return profile no longer offered the asymmetric upside that led us to invest in the first place. We dislike selling on valuation as great growth companies are hard to find and letting winners run is an important facet of a winning growth strategy, however, we’re not gluttons for punishment either and in each of those cases we redeployed capital towards other high-quality growth companies with less demanding valuations.”

1. Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP)

Lyle’s Stake Value: $1,306,116,000
Percentage of Christopher Brown Lyle’s 13F Portfolio: 12.23%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 85

Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce platform and subscription-based software that allows users to create their online stores. It was founded in 2006 and ranks first on the list of 10 e-commerce and tech stocks to buy now according to Christopher Lyle’s SCGE Management.

Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, the company has a market capitalization of $185.59 billion. With 894,000 shares, SCGE management has a stake worth $1.3 billion in Shopify Inc..

Based on the data of the 873 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, the number of hedge fund positions in Shopify decreased from 91 in the first quarter of 2021 to 85 in the second quarter. Aubrey Capital Management is the largest stakeholder in Shopify Inc. with shares worth over $8 billion. SCGE management holds the eighth spot with a 13F portfolio weightage of about 12.23%. Shopify beat analysts’ estimated EPS by $1.28 for the second quarter of 2021.

Worm Capital mentioned Shopify Inc. in its Q2 2021 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said:

“In particular, the very nature of travel is changing: Longer stays, more flexible remote work policies, and so on. As its marketplace matures, we see significant similarities to our position in Shopify: An international focus led by managers who understand that, in land-grab environment, focusing on its unique value proposition for its sellers—i.e. keep costs low, improve the platform with additional features, etc.—takes precedent over short-term earnings. In other words, we like businesses that play the long game. Unlike Airbnb, Shopify drove positive attribution this past quarter. Still, we think this opportunity is still vastly undervalued over the long-term.

Last year, in the Q2 2020 Investor Letter, we wrote a bit about the similarities and differences between AMZN and SHOP, but concluded they “both display winner-take-most dynamics in their respective domains.” We still believe that thesis is true: E-commerce is still, relatively speaking, in its early days. Despite the pandemic push, e-commerce retail still represents less than 15% of overall retail sales, per latest Fed data.

What that means, in practice, is that the opportunity for low-end disruption (i.e. create a scalable backbone for sellers to launch e-commerce business cheaply) is an enormous, underappreciated opportunity to create new economic value. Shopify is growing its GMV at high velocity (114% YoY in its most recent quarter to over $37 billion) but it’s a tricky business to value—which is good. We like tricky valuations. Our research process looks out several years into the future, which is really the only way to value a business properly—especially in a disruptive environment. (Trying to look at potential short-term earnings or even a simple price-to-sales multiple is not a good way to model out valuations on Shopify.) When thinking about a position like Shopify, we view them as generational company—much like AMZN—that is building the global infrastructure to enable small and medium-sized business to transact online, and, most importantly, keep their unique identity and branding.

Where AMZN optimizes for efficiency, SHOP optimizes for experience. The scale of this opportunity is vast, and Shopify’s reach is wide. The focus—much like ABNB—is keeping costs low for sellers, attract new vendors, improving the ecosystem for merchants. “The rebels are winning,” Shopify president Harley Finkelstein said recently (in a quote we liked so much we made it the title of this letter). “We are betting on a different vision of the future of commerce. We are making it possible for every business to present their brand in their own unique way. A stark contrast to selling on a centralized marketplace.”

You can also take a peek at the 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Billionaire Daniel Sundheim and 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to John Paulson

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