How Hedge Funds’ Top Bets on eCommerce Are Performing So Far This Year

3. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)

– Investors with Long Positions (as of March 31): 67

– Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of March 31): $5.14 Billion

During the first three months of the year, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) saw the number of funds from our database bullish on the stock decline by 10. The stock of the Chinese eCommerce giant surged by more than 20% since the beginning of the year, as Alibaba managed to beat revenue estimates for three quarters in a row, while EPS came ahead of expectations for two out of the last three quarters. More specifically, Alibaba’s second-quarter EPS of $0.74, topped the estimates by $0.11, while revenue of $4.84 billion surged by 59% on the year and was $300 million ahead of the consensus estimate. The company also registered a Gross Merchandise Value of $126 billion, up by 24% on the year.

2. JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD)

– Investors with Long Positions (as of March 31): 73

– Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of March 31): $5.14 Billion

The total number of investors tracked by us bullish on JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) shrank by five during the first quarter. The stock price of the $34 billion Chinese online direct sales company slid by almost 24% so far this year. In June, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) agreed to sell its Yihaodian website to JD.com in exchange for a 5% stake in the latter. For the second-quarter, JD.com posted revenue of RMB65.24 billion ($9.81 billion), up by 42% on the year, but slightly lower analysts’ estimates of RMB65.34 billion. On the other hand the company turned to a surprise adjusted profit of RMB0.29 ($0.04) per share, which topped the estimates of a loss of RMB0.19. The better-than-expected bottom line was helped by an improvement in JD.com’s gross margin, which went up to 15% from 12.9%.

1. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

– Investors with Long Positions (as of March 31): 133

– Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of March 31): $14.70 Billion

The hedge fund interest in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) declined during the first quarter as the number of funds with long positions slid by eight. The stock is trading 14% in the green so far this year helped by strong financial results and solid growth registered by Amazon Web Services. For the second quarter, Amazon posted EPS of $1.78 on revenue of $3o.4 billion (up by 31% on the year), which topped analysts’ estimates by $0.67 and $850 million, respectively, while AWS sales went up by 58% on the year to $2.89 billion. Amazon also provided third-quarter revenue guidance to between $31 billion and $33.5 billion.

Disclosure: None