Louis Bacon is the founder of Moore Capital Management and is one of the most famous traders of the past two decades. His personal wealth is more than $1.5 billion and Bacon has donated considerable money to charity too. Although Bacon is best known for his macro investing, his fund also has an equity portfolio value of around $2.5 billion as of March 2016. Given Bacon’s billionaire status, let’s take a closer look at his fund’s top moves for the first quarter.
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Follow Louis Moore Bacon's Moore Global Investments
#5 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)
– Shares held (as of March 31): 420,000
– Total Value (as of March 31): $33.19 million
– Percent of Portfolio (as of March 31): 1.34%
Moore Capital cut its holding in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) by 48% in the first quarter to 420,000 shares as the macro picture for China remains muddy. Although China’s crude consumption is strong, other economic indicators show a sharp slowdown in the country. George Soros, one of Bacon’s contemporaries, has said that China could undergo a financial crisis similar to the one that the United States underwent beginning in 2008. Given that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) depends on China for most of its revenues, many investors don’t think the company can do well without China’s economy performing strongly. Shares of Alibaba are off by around 2.7% year-to-date.
#4 Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP)
– Shares held (as of March 31): 975,000
– Total Value (as of March 31): $43.15 million
– Percent of Portfolio (as of March 31): 1.74%
Like it did with Alibaba, Moore Capital cut its stake in Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP) by 48% in the first quarter. Ctrip.com is a leading provider of travel services in China. Given that travel is highly economically sensitive, Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP)’s growth and earnings could be negatively affected if China’s economy undergoes a hard landing. Ctrip’s dollar-denominated earnings could also decline if the Chinese Yuan continues to depreciate against the dollar. For a growth stock like Ctrip.com, a sharp slowdown in growth could send the stock considerably lower. If growth investors leave, there might not be any value buyers for a while. Ctrip.com isn’t a value stock yet with a forward P/E of 63. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management was a top shareholder of Ctrip.com International at the end of March.
