Tiger Cub Lee Ainslie Loves Apple Inc. (AAPL) & More

We track quarterly 13F filings from hundreds of hedge funds, including Tiger Cub Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital. We have found that 13Fs can be useful sources of information for investors- the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds generate an average excess return of 18 percentage points per year, other strategies are probably possible as well, and analyzing a top manager’s moves over the course of a previous quarter can sometimes provide investment ideas. Read on for our quick take on Maverick’s five largest holdings by market value as of the end of March and compare them to previous filings.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) regained its place as the most popular stock among hedge funds in the first quarter of 2013 (see the full top ten list) even with many billionaire investors selling the stock; Ainslie, meanwhile, increased his stake by 27% to nearly 690,000 shares. Lower margins caused Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s earnings to fall by 18% in its most recent quarter compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, even as revenue grew by 11%. The company has announced plans to return more cash to its shareholders, including both a large repurchasing program and increased dividend payments which have brought the annual yield to 2.7%. Investors are pricing further earnings declines into the stock price.

Maverick reported a position of 4.4 million shares in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) at the beginning of April. Last quarter QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s revenue was up over 20% versus a year earlier, with earnings from continuing operations rising at roughly the same rate (net income was down overall due to significant earnings from discontinued operations in the previous year). Wall Street analysts expect enough growth that the stock’s forward P/E is 14 and five-year PEG ratio is 0.8. Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group increased its holdings of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) to a total of 3.8 million shares between January and March (research more stocks Griffin was buying).