Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global continues to place its bets on Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), as it recently disclosed the purchase of 2,400 shares of Class A Common Stock, for $25.17 per share. The funds affiliated to Mr. Halvorsen (Viking Global) now own an aggregate of 668,760 hares of Class A Common Stock, and 1.58 million shares of Class B Common Stock. As recently reported, Viking Global started a position (with 12.6% of its outstanding stock) in this recently-public company almost a month ago.
Viking Global is a Connecticut-based global investment firm managing more than twenty billion dollars in capital, with offices in Greenwich, New York City, Hong Kong, and London. It was founded in 1999 by Norwegian Tiger cub Andreas Halvorsen, along with -also- former Tiger Global employees David Ott and Brian Olson. On 2005, Mr. Olson left Viking; five years later, Mr. David Ott did the same. Between June 2005 (when Ott became the CIO of Viking) and March 2010, Viking Global returned 119% vs. 11% for the MSCI World Index.
Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) is a $2.12 billion market cap e-commerce that offers visually inspiring browsing, compelling merchandising, easy product discovery and prices for over seven million products from over 7,000 suppliers across five brands: Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, DwellStudio and Birch Lane. As I mentioned in a previous article, the company went public on October 2; and it was the first e-commerce company that did so since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s NYSE listing. Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W)’s initial public offering comprised 12.65 million shares of its Class A common stock, sold at a price to the public of $29.00 per share. The offering was closed on October 7; 10.5 million shares were sold by Wayfair, and the remaining 2.15 million, by certain selling stockholders.
Then, on November 3, almost a month after the offering closed, Viking Global filed a Form 4 with the SEC disclosing the purchase of 2,400 shares of Class A Common Stock of Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), for $25.17 per share. After this transaction, Mr. Halvorsen’s funds own a total of 668,760 shares of Class A Common Stock, and 1.58 million shares of Class B Common Stock.
In addition to Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), Mr. Halvorsen has been active in Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD). Following a significant increase in its exposure to the company, the fund owns 6.74 million shares, which represent 4.7% of Pioneer’s outstanding stock.
But, why track Mr. Halvorsen’s moves? Well, according to Viking Global’s 2014 Q2 investor letter, its long/short fund, Viking Global Equities, returned 6.4% during the first half of this year, while its long only fund, Viking Long Fund, delivered an 9.5% gain for the same period whereas S&P 500 index returned 7.1%.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned
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