Hedge Fund Hudson Bay Capital’s Top Tech Stocks

In its latest 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, disclosed the holdings in its public equity portfolio as of the reporting period of March 31. The New York City-based fund focuses on catalyst-driven absolute return strategies, and held a public equity portfolio valued at $3.76 billion as of March 31, mainly consisting of finance, technology, and healthcare stocks. During the first quarter, Hudson Bay Capital bought shares of more than 70 companies, and sold out of position in over 85 others. In this article, we will talk about Hudson Bay Capital’s top long positions in tech stocks, which were Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Yahoo! Sign, Corporate Headquarters, Buliding, Logo, Symbol, Letters,

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At Insider Monkey, we track hedge funds to learn about their investment strategies. According to our research, hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks historically delivered a monthly alpha of six basis points, though these stocks underperformed the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of seven basis points per month between 1999 and 2012. These stocks were able to generate alpha because of their lower risk profile. On the other hand, the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 Index by an average of 95 basis points per month. These stocks were slightly riskier, so their monthly alpha was 80 basis points (read the details here). Since the official launch of our small-cap strategy in August 2012 it has performed just as predicted, returning over 144% and beating the market by more than 84 percentage points.

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Let’s discuss Hudson Bay Capital’s top tech stocks, starting with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), a new position which the investor disclosed owning 3.25 million shares of, valued at $144.47 million. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is one of the most popular technology stocks among billionaires, with a total of 15 billionaires holding stakes in the company. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is planning to spin off its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and seems to be very confident about the spin off, which is planned for the fourth quarter of 2015. However, some experts believe that Yahoo’s move to spin off its stake in Alibaba might face some regulatory hurdles and might be subjected to a tax review, which could greatly diminish the value of the move. Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba is valued at around $15 billion. Shares of Yahoo have lost 16.34% year-to-date, partly over that uncertainty. Among the largest shareholders of Yahoo is Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, which boosted its stake in the company by 63% to 14.65 million shares during the first quarter.

Second spot is held by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), in which Hudson Bay Capital increased its position by 33% to 1.48 million shares worth $123.20 million. For the fiscal fourth quarter of 2015 ended March 31, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) reported a 45% increase in revenue year-over-year to $2.81 billion. The e-commerce giant posted earnings per share of $0.48, up 7% compared to the same quarter last year. The results beat analyst expectations, a pleasant turn around from its disappointing fiscal third quarter 2015 results. Nonetheless, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s shares have dropped by 14.22% year-to-date. Another investor with a big position in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, holding 6.94 million shares as of March 31.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the third position among Hudson Bay Capital’s long positions in tech stocks, and the fund was bullish on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the first quarter, boosting its stake by 31% to 141,000 shares worth $17.56 million. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also one of the most popular technology stocks among billionaires. However, several billionaires dumped their Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) holdings completely during the last quarter, with billionaire ownership decreasing to 16 from 19. Overall, fund ownership in the company increased slightly to 150 from 149. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which owns one of the most profitable businesses ever, is going to announce a string of new products at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which will be held from June 8 through June 12 in San Francisco.  Rumors suggest Apple will unveil a new streaming music service, which will be a rival to Spotify. For its fiscal 2015 second quarter ended March 28, the company reported an impressive increase in quarterly revenue to $58 billion from $45.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net profit rose to $13.6 billion from $10.2 billion in the same quarter last year. Among the biggest shareholders of Apple is Carl Icahn, whose fund Icahn Capital LP held 52.76 million shares on March 31.

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