John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management Raised its Stake in $NFLX

John Thaler’s Jat Capital Management, LLC raised its passive stake in Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) to 4 million shares, or 7.6% ownership stake (see the 13G on September 30th). According to the firm’s latest 13F, Jat Capital Management increased its position in NFLX by 45% to 468 thousand shares in the second quarter. So in other words, the firm had just added net 3.55 million shares to its portfolio. NFLX had a dramatic price curve in 2011. The stock had soared 60% from January to July, but in September it suddenly jumped all the way to a negative 35% year to date return. JAT Capital Management might have purchases NFLX at around $125 when NFLX’s daily volume was more than 10 million shares. Now the stock is trading at $115, so outsiders can choose to follow at a discount.

NFLX was in 35 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter, according to Insider Monkey’s hedge funds tracking list. John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital had the most, with 1.11 million shares, corresponding to a 2.1% stake. Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC had 1.03 million shares, giving it 1.9% stake. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management had 945 thousand shares, or 1.8% stake. If no large adjustments happened, JAT Capital Management may be NFLX’s largest hedge fund stakeholder now.

John Thaler’s Jat Capital Management, LLC is based in New York City. John Thaler graduated from University of Chicago with a BA in economics. He worked at a private equity firm, Spectrum Equity Investors, focusing on technology, media, and telecom sectors. Following this gig in Boston, he came back to New York to join Chris Shumway’s Shumway Capital Partners. He worked five years at Shumway’s now closed shop and left in 2007 to launch JAT Capital. He invests mostly in technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.

Netflix, Inc. is the world’s largest subscription service company, according to Standard&Poor’s NetAdvantage. The company stream movies and TV episodes over the Internet and send DVDs by mail to about 20 million subscribers. Its core strategy is to grow a large streaming subscription business in the U.S. and globally.