Adage Capital Partners’ Favorite Tech Stocks

#4 Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

– Shares Owned by Adage Capital Management (as of March 31): 482,502

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $359.44 million

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

– Shares Owned by Adage Capital Management (as of March 31): 437,309

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $333.62 million

Adage Capital Management lowered its holding in both class A and class C shares of Alphabet Inc during the first quarter. While it reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 1%, it reduced its stake in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 6% during that period. Shares of the search giant recently took a big hit after the company reported its first quarter numbers. Owing largely to that slump, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is currently trading down 7.95% year-to-date and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is currently trading down by 8.68% year-to-date. At its recently concluded annual I/O conference, Alphabet unveiled several new products including a conversational assistant called ‘Google Assistant’ and a messaging app called ‘Allo’. However, the highlight of the show was the streaming Android Instant Apps technology, which analysts believe can be a major winner for the company going forward as it allows users to search for and use apps while remaining confined to the Chrome mobile browser. Because it does so, Google can now show apps in search results and as hence increase its mobile advertising revenue. Harris Associates reported holding 1.98 million class C shares of Alphabet in its last 13F filing.

#3 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

– Shares Owned by Adage Capital Management (as of March 31): 3.55 million

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $405.4 million

Moving on, Adage Capital Management upped its stake in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) by 10% during the first quarter. Shares of the social media giant have kept their uptrend intact this year, rising by 10.48% so far in 2016. While most analysts continue to remain bullish on the company, in the past few months some analysts have become skeptical about the consistent rally in its stock. They believe that at current levels the stock is significantly overvalued based on both parameters – a) traditional valuation metrics and b) relative to its peers. Moreover, they also argue that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has posted record financial numbers consistently in the past few quarters only because its user base continues to grow and not because the company has been able to monetize its user base efficiently. On May 16, the company announced that apart from ads for its own platform, it will also start selling video ads for other companies for a cut of the revenues. James Parsons‘ Junto Capital Management made a fourfold increase to its stake in Facebook during the first quarter to 716,800 shares.