Taking into account that the broader market went nowhere last year and most large hedge funds suffered huge losses during that period, 2015 was a fine year for Chase Coleman‘s Tiger Global Management LLC. According to our calculations, the 27 long positions the fund held in companies with market caps over $1 billion during 2015 delivered a weighted average return of 1.7%. Since we don’t include the short positions of a fund, its investments in bonds, or other instruments, the actual return might differ from our estimates. According to the fund’s recently submitted 13F filing with the SEC, its US equity portfolio was worth $12.44 billion at the end of December, 53% more than the $8.12 billion that it was worth at the end of September. In this post, we will be analyzing the fund’s top five stock picks, which alone accounted for over 65% of the value of its equity portfolio at the end of December.
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#5 Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)
– Shares Owned by Tiger Global Management LLC (as of December 31): 758,389
– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $966.9 million
Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) was a new entrant in Tiger Global Management LLC’s equity portfolio during the fourth quarter. Although shares of the company embarked on a downtrend in November after it reported its third-quarter results and continued the same trajectory this year, they spiked in anticipation of Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)’s fourth quarter results and following the earnings release are now trading down only 3% year-to-date. Backed by a large increase in travel bookings during the quarter, on February 17, Priceline Group reported EPS of $12.63 on revenue of $2.00 billion, versus analysts’ projections of EPS of $11.81 on revenue of $1.96 billion. Stephen Mandel‘s Lone Pine Capital reduced its stake in Priceline Group by 15% to834,421 shares during the fourth quarter.
#4 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
– Shares Owned by Tiger Global Management LLC (as of December 31): 10.6 million
– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $1.15 billion
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was another company in which Tiger Global Management LLC initiated a stake during the fourth quarter. Amid a 4.5% decline in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock during the quarter, the number of billionaire investors covered by us with a stake in the company declined by one to 17. Though shares of the company are currently trading at a very low forward price-to-earnings multiple of 9.65, fears of a decline in revenue and a downturn in China, its second biggest market, have made investors wary of buying the stock in the past few months. The company recently raised $12 billion from the debt markets for “general corporate purposes”, despite having over $216 billion in cash, because most of its cash is stashed abroad and it will have to pay a large amount in taxes if it brings it back to the US. Billionaire David Einhorn‘s Greenlight Capital reduced its stake in Apple by 44% to 6.28 million shares during the fourth quarter.
