Noam Gottesman took the knowledge he gleaned from the halls of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs and co-founded his own fund, GLG Partners, in 1995. Since then, the fund’s AUM has reached into the ten-figures, as has Gottesman’s personal wealth. Similar to quarters past, the fund is required by the SEC to release its positions four times a year in a document known as a 13F filing. We take particular interest in these filings, as we’ve found that the most popular small cap stocks amongst hedge fund managers beat the market by 18 percentage points a year on average; learn more about this strategy here. Let’s take a closer look at GLG’s five largest equity positions by market value.
Facebook & Splunk
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) takes the top spot on our list, with GLG adding 330,000 shares to its position compared to a quarter prior. Loaded with 2.5mm total shares now, the fund’s holdings carry a market value of over $64mm. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock has struggled through this year, posting a 9.5% loss since the start of 2013. The social network has been in talks to purchase Israeli start-up Waze, although the deal may never come to fruition with Waze not willing to relocate to Silicon Valley. Rumors also hold that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has come into the bidding picture as well. Billionaire Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors has about 3.6mm shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in his portfolio; check out the fund’s positions here.
Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) is an innovative software developer in the data collection and organization arena that has grabbed a $61.6mm chunk out of GLG’s AUM. The young $4.7bn company has seen multiple new coverages from the sell-side with bullish tilts; most recently, Pac Crest and FBR have delivered positive comments. This sentiment has helped push the stock up nearly 60% in 2013 alone. Famed tech investor and billionaire Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies has slightly under 1.1mm shares of Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) – compare that to GLG’s 1.5mm.
The best of the rest
Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) makes an appearance near the top of GLG’s portfolio with a $58mm investment from the fund, amounting to 1.2mm shares. The retail drug store has had an outstanding 52 weeks in terms of price appreciation; the stock is up over 60% for those who jumped in this time last year. Besides that incredible growth aspect, income investors will like Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG)’s 2.2% dividend yield, which was recently highlighted as a top dividend pick by Goldman Sachs (although the bank did remove Walgreen from its Conviction Buy list in March). Billionaire Israel Englander of Millennium Management owns roughly 600,000 shares of Walgreen.
Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) leaves little to the imagination in terms of naming and its operations, but some may not know that Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) is the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, commanding nearly 50% of the market share. GLG’s 3mm share investment gives the hedge fund’s position a market value of almost $53mm. In the company’s Q1 earnings announcement late last month, Taiwan Semiconductor raised its forecast for industry growth to 10% from 7% beforehand. The stock has seen a fairly steady rise since last year, up 36% since May 2012. Billionaire Daniel S. Och of OZ Management has a $69mm call option position in Taiwan Semiconductor.
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) rounds out the bottom of GLG’s top five and is no surprise to those analyzing hedge fund 13Fs, as QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) consistently appears in many hedge funds’ top 10 holdings (joining names like American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)). Besides garnering the telecommunications player with bullish one-year price targets, analysts from the likes of Northland Securities, Raymond James, and Tigress Financial Partners have given Qualcomm bullish ratings since mid-March. Billionaire Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management owns nearly $600mm worth.
Final thoughts
Noam Gottesman doesn’t receive the same level of hype that fellow billionaires like Warren Buffett or David Einhorn receive, but this may give piggybackers a leg up on their competition, so to speak. From Qualcomm’s favoritism amongst the smart money’s best, to the attractiveness of Taiwan Semiconductor, Walgreen, Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Gottesman has amassed an interested equity portfolio worth further research.
Disclosure: none
