Apple Inc. (AAPL), QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM) Among V2 Capital’s Top Tech Stocks

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Victor Viner’s V2 Capital has filed its 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the end-of-first quarter reporting period. CIO Viner co-founded V2 Capital in 2004 along with co-portfolio manager Brett Novosel and CFO and CCO Michael Holleb, and the trio combined boast over 60 years of experience in the business and financial world, including Viner’s 25+ years of experience, which included founding and running Volaris Advisors, a multibillion dollar asset management firm that was eventually acquired by Credit Suisse Group.

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The Chicago-based fund has a tightly balanced equity portfolio consisting of 44 positions with nearly identical weight, as well as four smaller positions. Given the lack of any clear-cut top picks in the fund’s portfolio, we’ve decided to instead focus on the top technology picks of the fund, which was the most popular sector in its diversified portfolio along with healthcare.

Let’s start with the fund’s new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), one of the most profitable businesses ever. That position had a value of $5.37 million as of the reporting period, and consisted of 43,167 shares. Despite huge earnings expectations for the first quarter, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) beat them handily, posting earnings per share of $2.33 and revenue of $58 billion. Analysts had bold expectations of $2.21 in earnings per share and $56.85 billion in revenue. Yet, the huge results and a pumped up $140 billion share buyback program have done nothing to help shares; in fact they’re down by 5% since the earnings report. One small disappointment for investors during the report was the somewhat surprising announcement from CEO Tim Cook that the margins on the Apple Watch would be lower than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s average margins (which were 40.8% during the first quarter), with analysts expecting them to be higher. Regardless, Apple has many bullish investors who expect the stock has as much as 50% upside still in it. Among them is billionaire Carl Icahn, who feverishly pitched for those greater shareholder returns.

V2 Capital’s position in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOMamounted to 79,785 shares valued at $5.53 million, making it the top pick in the fund’s portfolio. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is down by 8% year-to-date and came under the activist glare of renowned investor Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners, who revealed a large position in April and plans to discuss ways to increase shareholder value, including spinning off what it deems to be a worthless chip business. The market reacted somewhat tepidly to JANA’s activist involvement however despite the company’s mundane performance and exorbitant executive compensation. In addition to Rosenstein, billionaire Ken Fisher is another investor with a large position in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).

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