Tech-Savvy Investor Betting Big on These Five Stocks

As a tech-focused investor, Daniel Benton, who leads Andor Capital Management, holds many big names in his equity portfolio. Andor has recently reported its 13F filing for the third quarter reporting an equity portfolio worth $636.15 million. The portfolio was significantly cut during the quarter from $1.08 billion disclosed a quarter earlier, with the investor closing 18 positions and opening stakes in six companies. In this way, Andor has a pretty big turnover rate that stands at over 100%. In this article, we are going to take a look at Andor’s top five picks in terms of value, held as of the end of September.

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Andor Capital is one of some 730 funds, whose activity we monitor in order to identify trading opportunities. A retail investor does not have the resources or, often, the skills of a large money manager, who has to conduct due diligence, while identifying the next stock to buy. This is where our research comes in handy. We identify the stocks that the funds we follow are collectively bullish on and their focus on long-term profits allows us to imitate them and obtain returns above the market. Our small-cap strategy focuses on the 15 most popular small-caps among the funds we track and it has returned 102% since August 2012, beating the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by around 53 percentage points (see more details here).

In Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Andor left its position unchanged at 500,000 shares worth $44.95 million in aggregate at the end of September. The stock of the social network operator inched up by some 5% during the third quarter, outperforming the broader market and is over 39% in the green year-to-date. The company’s last financial results showed strong growth in the number of daily and monthly active users and its focus on mobile has also registered good results, with mobile advertising revenue representing 78% of the total (see details). Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) over the years has become a favorite among smart money investors. Leon Cooperman, Ken Fisher,
Clifford Fox are three other big money managers that hold shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).

Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) is another winner in Andor’s equity portfolio; the stock has gained more than 19% since the beginning of the year. The fund cut its stake in the company by 40% during the third quarter and disclosed a $46.88 million stake that contains 375,000 shares as of the end of September. Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) has recently made the news on the back of its acquisition of a plant in Eugene, Oregon, that the semiconductor company plans to retrofit and to start manufacturing components used in mobile phones by 2017. During the second quarter, Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO)’s popularity among the investors we follow increased to 72 from 46, while the aggregate value of their holdings was equal to almost 14% of the company’s outstanding stock at the end of June. This is not surprising, taking into account that the stock is trading at a forward P/E of 12.1 and analysts project further growth, assigning a consensus price target of $156.40 (an upside potential of 30%). Clifford Fox’s Columbus Circle Investors disclosed ownership of 456,991 shares of Avago Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) in its 13F filing for the third quarter.

On the following page we are going to take a look at the top three picks of Andor Capital Management, namely, T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).

T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) climbed a couple of spots in Andor’s equity portfolio as the investor added 250,000 shares to its position and the stock inched up by some 3% during the third quarter. Andor held 1.25 million shares of the company worth $49.76 million at the end of September. T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) has gained more than 38% since the beginning of the year, but it is trading at a fair forward earnings multiple of 15.5. In a recent report, on Barron’s, Sergey Dluzhevskiy, an Associate Portfolio Manager of the Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Global Telecommunications Fund, reaffirmed GAMCO’s ‘Buy’ rating on T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) stock and said it could reach $83 by 2019. Meanwhile, at the end of June, 69 funds among those we track held 11% of T-Mobile’s outstanding stock. GAMCO Investors reported holding 349,050 shares as of the end of September.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) represents Andor’s second-larges holding and its top new position as of the end of September. The fund added 100,000 shares of the company’s class A stock, which carried a value of $63.84 million. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the best tech giants to invest in, as it has steadily climbed over the past years and has been focusing on the long-term growth. One of the investors most bullish on Alphabet is Leon Cooperman. His fund, Omega Advisors has recently conducted an investor conference call, in which it presented Alphabet as its top holding and projecting a 21% growth rate in the next three to five years. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is also betting big on Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), owning 915,214 shares of class A stock and 523,585 class C shares as of the end of September.

Finally, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) remained Andor’s top pick, the investor leaving the stake unchanged at 1.0 million shares valued at $248.40 million. The position amassed 39% of Andor’s equity portfolio. Tesla is one of Andor’s long-term bets and even though the stock has declined by around 12% over the last 52 weeks, the company has some potential to grow as it transitions from becoming a high-tech company to becoming an automaker. However, the short seller Jim Chanos doesn’t think Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will succeed in this process, as he stated in a recent interview (see more detail here). On the other hand, environmentalist Al Gore, who also runs Generation Investment Management, has said that Tesla will stand to benefit from the renewable energy development and lower battery costs (see article). Another investor bullish on Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is billionaire Ron Baron, who considers that Tesla’s stock could grow as much as four times its current value in the next five years.

Disclosure: none