In April this year, revolving credit, mainly representing credit-card debt, had a one-year climb of 11.57%, which shows that shoppers haven’t refrained from swiping their cards. That is good news for credit companies like Mastercard. At the end of the first quarter of 2015, Lone Pine Capital remained the largest shareholder with 12.97 million shares, followed by Tom Russo‘s Gardner Russo & Gardner with 10.02 million shares and billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, which owns 8.26 million shares.
Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) is another company in which both Mandel and Armitage held long positions at the end of the first quarter. While Mandel reduced his position in the company by 25%, Armitage increased his by only 4% to 5.28 million shares and 1.69 million shares respectively. The Chinese web services company has been a major attraction for many U.S. investors. Cody Willard, a former hedge fund manager, made a comment earlier this year that Baidu is one of the best ways to invest in China. Even after reducing his position, Mandel still remained the largest shareholder, followed by Philippe Laffont‘s Coatue Management with 3.02 million shares and billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global with 2.43 million shares.
Let’s now consider Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) in which Mandel held 1.33 million shares with a value of $1.55 billion and Armitage disclosed owning 219,910 shares valued at $256.01 million after increasing his stake by 46.00%. Priceline is an American online company that claims to help users to take advantage of discounts on purchases related to travel such as airline tickets and hotel bookings. To gain advantage in the Chinese market, the company recently announced that it will pump in an additional $250 million into Ctrip, a Chinese online travel leader. The move could earn the American company up to 15% stake in Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP), which is considered its biggest competitor in Asia-Pacific. The move to up its stake is timely since online booking in China is expected to hit $30.30 billion this year, up from $14.00 billion in 2012. Other funds that had stakes in Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) at the end of the first quarter include Eric W. Mandelblatt‘s Soroban Capital Partners and billionaire Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC.
Lastly, let’s look at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which ranks among the most popular among the stocks we track. Mandel held 6.84 million shares of the company valued at $850.92 million and Armitage closed the quarter with 3.93 million shares valued at $488.65 million. Both funds increased their positions in the Cupertino, California-based technology company with Mandel raising his stake by over 200% and Armitage upping his position by 9% on the quarter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock has registered a growth of more than 15% this year, owing to its record breaking sales of its new iPhones. There has been a particular interest in the large screen iPhones from China, a market that is expected to help boost the iPhone sales to more than 50 million units in the current quarter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has also set out to take control of the wearable market with its Apple Watch, which is believed to have hit 2.80 million in sales in the U.S. alone, barely two months of hitting the market. A few of the funds that were invested in the stock at the end of March were billionaire Carl Icahn‘s Icahn Capital LP and billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management.
Disclosure: None
