Tiger Global’s Tech Stock Picks Include Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Tiger Global Management, which counts billionaire and Tiger Cub Chase Coleman among its partners, filed its 13F for the first quarter of 2013 in mid May. While these filings disclose many long equity holdings as of the end of the previous quarter (March in this case) and so are a little out of date, we have found that it’s still possible to use them to develop investment strategies: by our reckoning, the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds earn an average excess return of 18 percentage points per year (learn more about our small cap strategy). We can also examine the most recent 13F to find individual funds’ top picks in a number of areas. Read on for our thoughts on Tiger Global’s five largest tech holdings and compare them to previous filings.

One of the fund’s largest holdings overall at the end of March was its 65 million shares of Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN). Still barely profitable on a trailing basis- and still down 41% from where it was trading a year ago- the daily deals company has rallied somewhat following the departure of CEO Andrew Mason. Following this increase in price, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) now trades at 25 times consensus earnings for 2014 and is therefore quite dependent on future earnings growth. Fellow Tiger Cub Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management had been buying Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) during the fourth quarter of 2012 (see Laffont’s stock picks).

Tiger Global cut its stake in Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) but still owned 380,000 shares of the stock at the end of the quarter. Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) has been a popular pick among Tiger Cub funds; for example, billionaire Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital had over $1 billion invested in the stock at the beginning of this year (find Mandel’s favorite stocks). In the first quarter of 2013, the company grew its revenue by 26% versus a year earlier with net income rising even more quickly. Markets are already accounting for high growth going forward, though with the forward P/E dipping to 18 Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) might be worth a look anyway.

The 13F shows that Tiger Global was also selling Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the quarter, yet as with Priceline the fund maintained a strong position in the e-commerce company. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s profits remain low, though investors argue that the company is currently making investments in new business capabilities which will pay off in the form of higher profits later on. We’re skeptical of that reasoning, and with a forward P/E of 81 we would avoid the stock. Fisher Asset Management, managed by billionaire Ken Fisher, has been another major shareholder in Amazon (check out more stocks Fisher owns).

Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) was another of the fund’s top tech picks with the filing disclosing ownership of 2.6 million shares. The Chinese search engine and Internet portal saw a shrinkage in its net margins recently, per the company’s quarterly reports: while revenue grew 40% in its most recent quarter compared to the same period in the previous year, earnings grew by only 9%. That’s still a decent growth rate from a business point of view, but even with Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s stock price falling 19% in the last year the stock is priced at 20 times its trailing earnings and so might be too expensive.

Tiger Global nearly doubled the size of its position in Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), the $16 billion market cap communications equipment company. At that valuation, the stock trades at 14 times forward earnings estimates. From that point it would need further growth in order to justify the current price, so it might be best to wait for a couple more quarters of financial data from the company. Billionaire George Soros had been selling some of its Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) stock at the end of last year, but still closed 2012 with 2.6 million shares in his portfolio (research more stocks Soros liked).

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.