Ian P. Murray, the manager of Lanexa Global Management, is a respected hedge fund manager, and one of the many ‘Tiger Cubs’ who worked under Julian Robertson at Tiger Management in the past. According to his fund’s 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the reporting period of June 30, his hedge fund has a public equity portfolio valued at $52.99 million, and is primarily invested in the technology sector. The fund’s 13F reveals that it had a total of 11 new purchases and sold out of 13 stocks during the second quarter. The performance of some of the stocks that it sold out of has shown that the hedge fund made a smart move, as some of these stocks have delivered disappointing second quarter results which have carried into the third quarter. In this article, we focus on three of the stocks in which the hedge fund sold out of, and analyze whether the timing was right to run far away from these tech stocks. The stocks are Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK).
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Now let’s consider three of the stocks in which Lanexa Global Management sold out of completely, starting with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). Going into the second quarter, the fund held a total of 50,000 shares of the company, with a market value of $2.22 million, having opened a new position in the stock during the first quarter. The hedge fund, however, decided to sell all of its shares in the stock during the second quarter. While there were hopes that the stock would perform well in the first quarter, it ended up disappointing, losing 12.03%. In the second quarter, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) again lost 11.58%, and has lost 27.4% year-to-date. In its earnings results for the second quarter, the company disappointed as well, posting earnings per share of $0.16, missing the $0.18 in earnings per share expected by Wall Street analysts. Out of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, OZ Management, led by billionaire Daniel S. Och, had the largest position, holding 14.65 million shares valued at $650.88 million, after increasing its stake by 63%, a figure that represented 2.1% of its portfolio. Another billionaire fund that held a position in the stock going into the second quarter was D. E. Shaw, founded by David E. Shaw, which owned 12.43 million shares with a market value of $552.52 million.
Lanexa Global Management also sold the 35,000 shares valued at $1.75 million that it held in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) going into the second quarter. During the quarter, the stock lost 27.68% of its value. Wall Street was disappointed by the company’s user growth for the second quarter, although the company’s revenue grew by 61%. The $20.30 billion market cap microblogging company still remains unprofitable due to its ongoing investments in new data centers and talent, strategies that are aimed at boosting its performance in the long-term. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) posted a loss per share of $0.21. The company revealed that 255 million active monthly users of its site are checking on the site less frequently compared to a year earlier, which is a big disappointment for any social media site, which relies entirely on its user engagement. Out of the more than 700 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey during the first quarter, JAT Capital Management, managed by John Thaler, emerged as the biggest shareholder, owning 7.26 million shares valued at $363.70 million, representing 9.78% of its 13F portfolio value. OZ Management, was also bullish on the stock, opening a new position during the first quarter and going into the second quarter with 4.50 million shares valued at $225.55 million.
Let’s finish with SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) in which Lanexa Global Management held a total of 30,000 shares valued at $1.91 million going into the second quarter. Looking at the fund’s decision to send all of its shares in the stock packing during the second quarter, it becomes apparent that the move came right on time, before the conclusion of a disappointing second quarter. The flash memory storage manufacturer has been struggling for some time now. In its second quarter results, it managed to beat estimates, posting earnings per share of $0.66 compared to $0.33 expected by analysts. However, the profit was a disappointment on a year-over-year basis, having posted $1.41 in earnings per share during the same quarter last year. Revenue too was down by 23.93% on a year-over-year basis and by 7% sequentially, posting $1.24 billion for the second quarter of 2015. During the second quarter, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) plunged down by 27.78%. As things stand now, if the company doesn’t improve its innovation and introduce new products, it’s likely to register worse performance in the third quarter. Nonetheless, going into the second quarter, a number of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on the stock, with Iridian Asset Management, managed by David Cohen and Harold Levy, leading the pack with 6.35 million shares with a market value of $404.11 million, after boosting its stake by 25%. This position in the stock represented 3.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second hedge fund on the list was Kensico Capital, led by Michael Lowenstein, with 6.27 million shares valued at $399.13 million.
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