How Viking Global’s Top New Picks in Q1 Performed in Q2

#3 JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD)

 – Shares Owned by Viking Global (as of March 31): 15.08 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $400 million

Moving on, Chinese e-commerce company JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD), another new addition to Viking Global’s portfolio in the first quarter, has had a terrible 2016 so far. After declining by 17.86% during the first quarter, shares of the online direct sales company lost nearly 20% of their value during the second quarter. Last month JD.Com Inc(ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) announced a major deal with retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) in which the latter sold its Chinese online market place, Yihaodian, to the former in exchange for a 5% stake in the company. However, this deal didn’t have any impact on the stock of JD.Com, which is currently trading down by 31% year-to-date. At the end of last month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that under the terms of the deal between Wal-Mart and JD.Com, the former would get observer status at the latter’s board meetings if it eventually increases its stake in the latter to 10%. Hedge funds that initiated a stake in JD.Com during the second quarter included Ray Carroll’s Breton Hill Capital, which bought 63,318 shares of the company.

#2 Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY)

 – Shares Owned by Viking Global (as of March 31): 11.76 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $847 million

Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) made its debut in Viking Global’s equity portfolio at the ninth spot overall as of March 31. Although shares of the drug giant remained range-bound for much of the second quarter, they saw a major rally at the end of June and managed to end the quarter up by 9.36%. However, owing to the heavy decline they saw during the first quarter, Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY)’s shares are currently trading down 7.24% year-to-date. The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.51 per share, which translates into an annual dividend yield of 2.55%. On July 14, analysts at Jefferies Group reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock while boosting their price target on it to $105 from $100, which represents potential upside of 43.75%. Eli Lilly shares were owned by 57 of the hedge funds in our database on March 31, with their combined positions being valued at $3.00 billion.

#1 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

 – Shares Owned by Viking Global (as of March 31): 20.13 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $2.3 billion

Finally, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) was not only the largest stake initiated by Viking Global during the first quarter, but also its top stock pick overall at the end of March. Shares of the social media giant ended the second quarter flat, but have rallied this month, pushing them near their all-time highs and up by 5.7% since the end of the first quarter. On July 19, reports emerged that the company’s messaging platform WhatsApp, which is hugely popular in South America, has been banned by a court order in Brazil for not complying with requests for access to users’ data. Although this hasn’t impacted the stock much, some analysts feel that if this ban remains in place for a long time and other jurisdictions also start banning the service over cybersecurity concerns, it could be detrimental for the company in the long run. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is expected to report its second quarter results on July 27 and the consensus estimate is for it to report EPS of $0.81 on revenue of $6.01 billion, significantly above the EPS of $0.50 on revenue of $4.04 billion that it had reported for the same quarter of last year. Hedge funds that lowered their stake in the company during the second quarter included Paul Cantor, Joseph Weiss, and Will Wurm’s Beech Hill Partners, which lowered its holding in the company by 5% to 62,641 shares.

Disclosure: None