Billionaire Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Cuts Exposure to Tech Stocks amid 22% Drop in Q1

Tiger Global Management was founded in 2001 by Chase Coleman, an understudy of the legendary investor Julian Robertson. When the latter closed his fund, Tiger Management, in 2000, he entrusted Coleman with $25 million in seed money for his new fund, Tiger Global. Since then, the fund has grown to manage more than $32 billion worth of assets. The first quarter was a miserable one for Tiger Global, as its equity portfolio generated a loss of 22%, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Coleman’s huge bets on technology boom have gone sour and have generated more than $1 billion in losses for his fund. As a result, Tiger Global reduced its exposure to the sector, which now accounts for 22% of its equity portfolio, down from 28% a quarter before. Let’s have a look at five of the fund’s biggest moves heading into the second quarter.

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Cut Stake In Chinese E-commerce Firm

A former top equity bet, JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) has fallen out of favor with Chase Coleman and Tiger Global reduced its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant by 27% during the first quarter. According to its latest 13F filing, the fund now holds a little over 44 million shares worth $1.16 billion. Another Tiger Cub, Andreas Halvorsen has a different opinion about JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD). His fund, Viking Global, initiated a new position in the stock during the quarter, having amassed a little over 15 million shares worth $399 million. The stock has fallen by 18% during the first quarter and continued to depreciate into the current quarter and are currently down by 24% year to date. Analysts at Credit Suisse have recently downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from the previous ‘Outperform’ rating and have reduced their price target to $21.00 per share from $38.00. JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) latest earnings report was not flattering as the numbers started to reflect the slowdown in China’s economic growth. Revenues came in at $8.27 billion, below analysts’ consensus of $8.33 billion, as the amount of goods (gross merchandise volume) sold via the platform rose by only 55% year over year, down from 69% in the previous quarter.