Here is Hedge Fund’s Favorite Social Media Stock

LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) was next in line with 48 funds reporting ownership of $3.08 billion worth of the company’s stock, versus 45 funds with $2.75 billion worth of stock in the previous quarter. LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) also posted strong fourth-quarter financial results with revenue advancing by 44% on the year to $643 million and earnings per diluted share jumping to $0.61 for the fourth quarter of 2014, from $0.39 a year earlier. Additionally EPS came above the estimates of $0.53.

Therefore investors have anticipated strong growth from LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), which explains the growth of the stock’s popularity among the funds that we track. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management with 3.41 million shares of the company was the largest shareholder among funds that we track, followed by Lansdowne Partners, Matrix Capital Management, and Criterion Capital, among others.

However, the story changes when we come to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). Among all three stocks, Twitter is the youngest public company, as it went public in November 2013. Additionally, Twitter has not reported a profit yet, although its revenue has been growing nicely and net loss has been shrinking. For the fourth quarter of 2014, the company posted revenue of $479 million, up from $243 million a year earlier and negative EPS shrunk to $0.20 from $3.13 for the same period of the previous year. The company had a 1.4% quarterly user growth, which is the smallest rate on record for the company, and led to a total of 288 million users at the end of 2014.

Nevertheless, investors have been withdrawing capital out of the stock as our data shows. At the end of 2014, 42 funds reported holding long positions in the company with an aggregate value of $1.01 billion, which represents a significant decline from 59 funds with $2.03 billion worth of stock at the end of September. However, billionaire Ken Griffin was among the investors who raised their stakes in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) during the fourth quarter, with his fund Citadel Advisors reporting ownership of 2.73 million shares, up by nearly 900% over the quarter. On the other hand, Steven Cohen cut his stake in the company by 81% to 463,800 shares.

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