Coatue Management, managed by Philippe Laffont, filed its latest 13F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently, disclosing its public equity portfolio as of the filing’s reporting period of March 31. New York City-based Coatue Management is a technology-focused hedge fund that was founded by Laffont in 1999. Prior to Coatue, Mr. Laffont worked for Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management after graduating with an M.S. in Computer Science from MIT. According to the 13F filing, the fund’s public equity portfolio, comprised of more than 50% of tech stocks, is valued at more than $10.50 billion. In this piece, we will take a look at Coatue’s top tech stocks, which include Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU).
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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) remained the top holding of Mr. Laffont, though he sold off some of his position during the first quarter. The investor held 7.69 million shares worth $956.6 million of the iPhone maker as of the end of March, a decrease from the 8.89 million shares the fund held as of the previous reporting period. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has lost its position both as the most popular tech stock among billionaires and the most popular stock overall among hedge funds we track. During the first quarter of 2015, the total number of billionaires holding shares in the most-valuable company in the world fell to 16 from 19. Among those billionaire shareholders is Carl Icahn, whose Icahn Capital holds 52.76 million shares of the company. Icahn recently issued an open letter to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s CEO Tim Cook to express his beliefs that the company’s shares are undervalued and stated a price target of $240 per share. According to the legendary investor, Apple will post a $12.00 diluted EPS by the end of 2016, and 30% diluted EPS growth in 2017. The company’s stock rose by 48.5% during the past year. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management also holds 10.81 million shares as of the end of March.
Next up is Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), a $37.99-billion market cap semiconductor device supplier. Laffont’s Coatue cut its position in the company to 6.94 million shares from 8.53 million shares held at the end of 2014, the current position being valued at $881.01 million. On Thursday, Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) announced that it agreed to acquire Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) for $37 billion in cash and stock. The deal is expected to be closed by the end of the first quarter of 2016. For the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) reported net income of $344 million, or $1.21 per share, up from $158 million, or $0.61 per share, in the same quarter of fiscal year 2014. The company pays a quarterly dividend of $0.38, a yield of 1.03%. During the past calendar year, Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO)’s stock gained an impressive 109.88%, compared to the industry average of 30.38%. Other investors that see value in the stock include Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, which holds 2.46 million shares.
The third position is held by Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), in which Coatue trimmed its stake by 2% to 1.76 million shares valued at $734.69 million. Shares of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) are up by 81.82% year-to-date, rather stunning growth for a large-cap stock as it continues to expand its online video streaming services around the globe at an impressive pace. FBR Capital Markets has an ‘Outperform’ rating with a staggering price target of $900 on the stock, showing potential upside of nearly 50% more. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is planning to offer its content in China, which is estimated to be a $5.9 billion market for the company, according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who talked on CNBC about Netflix venturing into China and the growth opportunities associated with it for the company. He said that Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is in talks with Chinese media company Wasu Media, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) founder Jack Ma. Karthik Sarma’s SRS Investment Management boosted its position in Netflix by 400% to 750,000 shares during the first quarter.
In Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Mr. Laffont upped his stake by over 10% to 7.91 million shares worth $650.23 million. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is one of the most popular technology stocks among billionaires and reported strong financial results for the first quarter, with revenue growing to $3.54 billion, compared to $2.50 billion year-over-year. In addition, the company managed to increase its monthly active users to 1.44 billion. Shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have gained 25.1% during the last year. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is among the top billionaire shareholders of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), holding 8.11 million shares as of March 31.
Lastly is Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), in which Mr. Laffont’s position contains 3.02 million shares valued at $628.92 million. The stake was increased by 3% from the previous reporting period. Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), an online search provider in China dubbed “the Chinese Google”, posted a 34% year-over-year revenue increase in the first quarter of 2015 to $2.05 billion. Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s stock has risen by 19.05% since May 2014. Viking Global, led by Andreas Halvorsen, held 2.43 million shares of Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) at the end of March.
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