Billionaire Julian Robertson Bets Big on Technology Sector With These Stocks

Julian Robertson is an iconic hedge fund manager who started Tiger Management in 1980. Not only is he famous for his own hedge fund, but he also seeded a large number of other funds which were run by his former employees known as “Tiger Cubs”. These Tiger funds today collectively have assets under management of more than 100 billion dollars, though 2016 has been a difficult one in terms of performance for many of these giant funds. Tiger Management had a 13F portfolio value of $551 million at the end of December with its top 10 holdings accounting for more than 60% of its total portfolio value. Robertson is heavily bullish on the IT and healthcare sectors.  The technology heavy NASDAQ has been on a roll and many of Robertson’s tech picks have done exceedingly well.

The filing also showed that Tiger Management initiated eight new stakes and closed two positions, including the one in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) during the quarter ended December. In the article below, we will discuss some of the fund’s top tech picks, including Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Don’t miss our list of 140 biggest and most famous Activist Hedge Funds, for further reading.

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During the fourth quarter, Tiger Management increased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Class C stock by 34% to 45,193 shares worth $34.88 million during the fourth quarter. Tiger cub and billionaire Chase Coleman‘s Tiger Global Management cut its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Class C stock by 93,377 shares over the quarter and held 190,500 shares at the end of December. Despite the sharp stock price increase, analysts continue to be extremely bullish on the stock. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) high-speed internet business, Google Fiber, recently announced major changes with a new CEO and a new business strategy to focus on providing Internet through wireless services instead of underground fiber-optic cables. At the end of the fourth quarter, 126 funds from our database held shares worth $12.74 billion in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Class C stock, versus 134 funds and $14.22 billion, respectively, a quarter earlier.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was another technology stock where Tiger Management increased its stake by 86,135 shares to 283,635 shares worth $32.6 million, which makes it the sixth-largest holding in the fund’s 13F portfolio. Another Tiger cub, Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global Investors, bought an additional 228,753 shares of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and held 18.98 million shares at the end of the fourth quarter. Besides its extremely popular social media website, the company also a number of other assets such as Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus. For the latest fourth quarter, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) reported an earnings of $1.41 a share on revenues of $8.8 billion, beating analyst earnings estimate of $1.31 a share on revenues of of $8.5 billion. Revenues were driven by increasing mobile video ad revenue. According to our database, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was the most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of 2016, but the number of funds long the stock decreased by three to 146 during the fourth quarter.

Robertson added Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) to its equity portfolio by having acquired 285,600 shares worth $21.1 million at the end of December. Another major hedge fund that initiated a position in Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) was  Steve Cohen‘s Point72 Asset Management, which held 667,600 shares heading into 2017. The company develops software for various industries, such as manufacturing, architecture, media, and engineering. Since the beginning of the year, the company’s stock has gained 17%. Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) recently announced that its CEO Carl Bass would step down, while reiterating its full year fiscal 2017 revenues and net subscription additions to be at the high end of its previously-announced guidance of $2,012-$2,032 million  and 515,000-525,000, respectively. A total of 46 investors tracked by us held shares of Autodesk at the end of 2016, up from 38 funds a quarter earlier.

Tiger Management started a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by buying 171,000 shares worth $19.8 million at the end of December. Sharing the same sentiment, billionaire Warren Buffet‘s Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake by 42.13 million shares to 57.36 million shares at the end of December. For the fiscal first quarter 2017, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported earnings of $3.36 per share which was same as Wall Street expectations. Revenues of $78.35 billion was above analyst estimate of $77.28 billion. During the October-December period, the company reported selling 78.3 million iPhones above the estimated 76 million units and representing an increase of 5% year-over-year. CEO Tim Cook recently said that he thinks Augmented Reality as a fundamental, revolutionary technology similar to the smartphone. He views it like the silicon used in the iPhone’s chips, in other words as a “core technology” and “not a product per se”. At the end of the fourth quarter, shares worth $16.5 billion were held by 113 funds that we track, declining from 145 funds in the quarter earlier.

Julian Robertson sold his entire stake of 400,800 shares in pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) during the fourth quarter. In contrast, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners initiated a new position by buying 3.87 million shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) during the same time period. The drug giant’s stock has performed poorly so far this year, falling by 6.5% as the entire stock market has rallied to new all-time highs. Robertson’s decision was smart considering that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) posted poor quarterly results for the last quarter. Earnings for the fourth quarter came at $0.63 per share, falling short of the consensus estimate of $0.67 per share. Though the top-line of $5.24 billion beat the analyst estimate of $5.12 billion, its results were received poorly by the market. The company is facing competition for several of its strategic products. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) expects earnings between $2.70 and $2.90 per share in 2017. The number of funds from our database bullish on Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) inched down by one to 58 during the October-December period.

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