The first quarter of 2015 saw Luxor Capital Group reduce its stake in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) to 2.69 million shares valued at $181.18 million from 3.53 million shares it held at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. The media and internet company is known to own over 150 brands and products, including media, search and applications, e-commerce, and more. It is the owner of the famous About.com, Ask.com, and Dictionary.com websites, as well as the match.com online dating service, the largest in the world. The stock’s performance for the first quarter of 2015 beat analysts’ consensus estimate, posting $0.43 in earnings per share compared to the $0.35 expected by analysts. Its revenue for the period was $772.50 million also slightly beating analysts’ forecast of $772.25 million. IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) posted $0.59 in earnings per share for the same quarter last year. 18 brokerages have given it a “Hold” recommendation. At the end of the quarter ending March 31, a total of 55 hedge funds in our database had stakes in the stock, with their holdings amounting to an aggregate value of $1.66 billion. Some of these funds are David Einhorn‘s Greenlight Capital, Dan Loeb’s Third Point, and Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital.
Another of Luxor Capital Group’s top tech picks is in Chinese internet company, Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), in which the fund held 355,470 shares with a market value of $74.08 million at the end of the first quarter, having upped its stake by 248% over the period. Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has established itself in China as a top search engine, and the company’s results for the quarter ended March 31 show that its mobile segment registered great improvement, contributing up to 50% of its total revenue, up from 42% in the fourth quarter of 2014. The growth in mobile phone subscriptions in China is a good opportunity for the company to expand its mobile segment. Currently, Baidu Inc is in a partnership with BMW to produce a self-driving car, which is expected to be launched before the end of the year. The stock has been given an “Overweight” rating by researchers at KeyBanc and a price target of $255.00, meaning an expected upside of 21%. Analysts expect the stock to post earnings per share of $42.91 for the current fiscal year. A total of 75 investors that we tracked during the first quarter held positions in the stock, with 17 of them being billionaires, making it one of the most popular among that wealthy group of investors. Some of these hedge funds are billionaire Stephen Mandel‘s Lone Pine Capital, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, and billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global.
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