Investors have also been betting on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the October-December period. Amazon has seen a significant growth in revenue and earnings during the fourth quarter as it went through the holiday season. The company posted sales of $29.33 billion, and earnings per share of $0.45 for the fourth quarter, better than expected and above the same quarter results from last year. After the release of the financial report at the end of January, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) jumped 12% the same day and is currently up by 21% over the last month. Among investors that raised their exposure to Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the fourth quarter are billionaires Ken Griffin and David E. Shaw. Citadel Advisors raised its stake by more than 4,500% to 1.56 million shares, and D.E. Shaw added 686,300 shares bringing it to 818,300 shares at the end of the fourth quarter.
Aside from tech, investors have been also bullish on some financial stocks, particularly Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), in which 91 funds reported ownership of $6.29 billion worth of stock, versus 58 funds with $5.08 billion a quarter earlier. Among investors holding shares of Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) are also 13 billionaires, which makes the stock one of the favorite financial companies among billionaire investors. The company has recently lost General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) as one of its partners, as the latter decided to conduct those operations once performed by Ally, under its own new financial arm. However, Ally’s management plans to increase its own subprime auto lending in order to deal with the loss of business from GM.
Billionaire Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus Capital Management is the largest shareholder of Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) among funds that we track, reporting ownership of 41.52 million shares as of the end of 2014. On the other hand, billionaire Dan Loeb of Third Point cut his fund’s exposure to the lending company by 30% to 30.00 million shares during the fourth quarter.
Finally, there is BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), in which the number of funds holding the stock advanced to 25 from 17 during the fourth quarter, while the value of the aggregate positions held by the funds that we track appreciated to $756.82 million from $631.18 million. Blackberry is planning to come back as one of the leading smartphone manufacturers and has already released several new models such as the Passport and Classic, which both sport physical keyboards among other features. Moreover, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) recently updated its mobile OS, which now has access to Amazon’s AppStore after the two companies struck a deal last year.
Prem Watsa continues to be the largest shareholder of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) with 46.65 million shares. In addition to Watsa, Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies acquired some 2.71 million shares during the October-December period, taking his position to 3.27 million shares.
Disclosure: None
