How Viking Global Played Major Tech Stocks in Q3

Viking Global Investors is a global investment firm founded in 1999. The investment firm has long term approach for investing and mainly deals in public and private equity interests across industries.

Viking Global Investors’ portfolio consists of stocks from different sectors. Information Technology stocks form a third of its portfolio while Energy and Consumer Discretionary stocks account for 18% and 17% respectively. During the quarter ended September 30th, the fund made major movements in stocks such as Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM). Let’s take a closer look.

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Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is a pretty big conviction bet for Viking as it makes up 10.58% of the fund’s 13F portfolio. For the quarter ended on 30^th September, 2016, the investment fund trimmed its holding of the stock by 6% to 18.74 million shares, however, amounting to around $2.4 billion at the time. Although it’s hard to blame anyone for taking profits on the stock, many bulls think Facebook has more long term upside ahead as arguably the best CEO in tech, Mark Zuckerberg, leads it. Facebook also has an admirably wide moat and more monetization opportunities ahead in AI and virtual reality.

Viking Global Investors boosted its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Class A shares by 9% during the quarter ended on 30^th September, 2016. The fund held $1.578 billion worth of Alphabet stock at the end of the quarter, forming 6.81% of its 13F portfolio. That translates to roughly 1.963 million shares. Although the election of Donald Trump doesn’t benefit the tech sector as much as other sectors, having Trump, who is known to be a big defender of businesses small and big, as President could potentially help Alphabet bring its overseas profits back home at a lower tax rate. That might mean more buybacks ahead.

Viking Global raised its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 142% in the third quarter to 13.667 million shares at the end of September. Microsoft recently received some good news after the European Commission gave its thumbs up to Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn. Although LinkedIn won’t improve Microsoft’s financials in the near term, the social network could help Microsoft in the long run, especially as it relates to Enterprise and the cloud. Of the 742 top funds we track, 126 owned shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of September, down 5 funds from the previous quarter.

Viking Global Investors slashed its holding of Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO)  by 55% during the September quarter to 4.55 million shares. The market value of the holding stood at $785.99 million and formed 3.39% of Viking Global Investors’ 13F portfolio. John Vinh of Pacific Crest recently issued a note saying that he believes the stock should be owned into fourth quarter earnings, due December 8. To the analyst, the Street’s estimates are achievable and the equity’s risk/reward is good. Vinh has a $215 price target and an ‘Overweight’ rating. 76 top funds owned shares of Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) as of the most recent 13-F reporting period, up 2 funds from the previous quarter.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was a new position for Viking in Q3 as the fund initiated a new stake of just over 3.01 million shares in the cloud software company. The new stake amounted to $214.9 million and 0.93% of Viking’s 13F portfolio on September 30. After dropping earlier in the year on worries that Salesforce.com might make a run at Twitter, shares have stabalized somewhat and are now down just 9.9% year-to-date. 66 elite funds had a bullish position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) as of the most recent 13-F reporting period, up 6 funds from the previous quarter.

DISCLOSURE – NONE