6. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is sixth most popular tech stock on our list, with 12 of the 59 billionaires owning a stake in the social networking company. Facebook actually declined in popularity during the fourth quarter of 2014. There were only two new billionaires initiating new positions vs. 4 billionaires selling out of the stock. Blue Ridge Capital’s John Griffin and Stan Druckenmiller initiated new positions whereas Andreas Halvorsen, David Tepper, Rob Citrone, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies dumped the stock. Billionaires were withdrawing their support but other hedge fund managers got actually more bullish about Facebook. It was the third most popular technology stock among hedge funds. Here is what we wrote about this earlier this week:
“Facebook climbs into third place after not making the top five on our last list, with 16% ownership at the end of the 2014, compared with 15.3% ownership at the end of the third quarter. Facebook shares have mostly stalled after a torrid 8-month run from the middle of 2013 to early 2014 that saw the stock gain more than 150%. Facebook is up about 10% since then, though down 1.68% in 2015. While the social media giant has had positive earnings reports, there is concern over the stagnating user growth, which has left analysts and investors mixed on its potential. Stephen Mandel, and David E. Shaw both made big increases to their positions, while John Griffin opened a new position with 3.24 million shares.”
5. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) lands in fifth with 13 billionaire investors, who have just under $3 billion invested in the search giant. Google is also the second most popular technology stock among all hedge funds though Google has been losing its popularity among billionaires and hedge funds recently. They were actually on the right track by selling their Google positions as the stock lost nearly 10% since the end of the third quarter. Lee Ainslie is the only billionaire in our list who initiated a brand new position in the stock. George Soros, Stan Druckenmiller, and Steve Cohen dumped their Google shares for other tech stocks.
4. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the fourth most popular technology stock among billionaires. There were 14 billionaires invested in Microsoft at the end of 2014. We didn’t count Jeff Ubben as one of these 14 billionaires. He may already be a billionaire or he will definitely become one within a couple of years if he continues his mind blowning performance. Ubben had nearly $3.5 billion invested in Microsoft and he was buying more shares as MSFT shares fell below $42 at the end of January. Stephen Mandel, Kerr Neilson, and David Abrams are some of the billionaires who are bullish about Microsoft.
3. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is one of the most popular stocks among all our hedge funds, and that holds true for our billionaire hedgies as well, with 15 of them investing $3.8 billion in the stock. It’s not hard to imagine why anyone rich or not would not want to jump on this stock’s back, as it’s gained a tremendous 424.71% since the start of 2013. David Einhorn, Andreas Halvorsen, and Seth Klarman have all added to their fortunes through this stock, having all held ownership of it for over a year.
