These Billionaires Are Bullish On FANG Stocks This Quarter

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)

Netflix is another FANG stock that tumbled by 10.62% over the first quarter, but, unlike Amazon, it has not been able to rebound – losing another 12.75% since the start of the second quarter. Such a decline certainly provided an attractive entry point for investors bullish on the company’s long-term prospects. Among them, we can count billionaires Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, which started a new stake comprising 1.82 million shares (or $186 million in stock) over the first quarter, and John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital, which opened a new stake containing 1.44 million shares (or $147 million in stock) over the period. Last week, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) quietly delayed the anticipated increase in its subscription fee for ‘grandfathered users’ into June. The cautious approach to this situation led many bears to question the company’s pricing power, arguing that increasing competition will continue to limit it.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Finally, there’s Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which saw its stock decline by more than 1.9% over the first quarter – and by another 4.7% since the beginning of April. Amid a poor performance, a few funds in our database decided to get a piece of the company. In this group are included billionaire Dan Loeb’s Third Point, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners, Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies. These new stakes comprised 700,000 shares (worth about $534 million by March 31), 633,956 shares, 10,926 shares and 163,999 shares, respectively. Over the past weekend, the U.K.’s Telegraph reported that the European Commission would impose a record-breaking fine on Google in the next few weeks, for abuses of its online search dominance. According to sources familiar with the issue, officials are aiming at announcing a 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) fine before the summer break – even as soon as next month. It should be noted however that details are still being closed, and the penalty could go as high as 6.6 billion euros (about $7.5 billion), well above the highest anti-trust fine ever issued: the 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) penalty received by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) back in 2009. In addition, “Google will be banned from continuing to manipulate search results to favour itself and harm rivals,” the Telegraph assured.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.