Tiger Global, Yale Cut Stocks Last Quarter As Markets Tumbled
While many money managers did more selling than buying, they still took advantage of the market swoon to add to a few beaten-down names.
(Bloomberg) -- Some of the biggest US institutional investors, from Tiger Global Management to Yale University’s endowment, were busy dumping stocks from their portfolios in the second quarter as markets cratered.
Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, whose hedge fund plunged 50% through the first half of the year, picked up where it left off in the first quarter, as it continued to reduce risk. The firm’s aggregate exposure to stocks -- which includes share sales and declining values -- dropped by about 55% to $11.8 billion. That’s down from $46 billion at the end of 2021.
Monday was the deadline for hedge funds and thousands of other institutional investors, including pensions and endowments, to report certain US equity holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission through quarterly 13F filings.
Yale was among several university endowments that joined the flight to safety. The school in New Haven, Connecticut, liquidated six long positions, leaving it with just two: a Vanguard emerging-markets ETF and an iShares ETF that tracks the S&P 500. Princeton University in New Jersey sharply reduced its stake in mining company Lithium Americas Corp., one of just three stocks it owns. Harvard, the richest US college, pared its stake in Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. while acquiring one new position, chipmaker ASML Holding NV.
Michael Burry, who rose to prominence after a winning wager against mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, has recently warned that a similar crash could be looming for markets. His Scion Asset Management exited 11 long positions. His lone purchase in the quarter was a $3.3 million stake in private-prison operator Geo Group Inc.
While many money managers did more selling than buying, they still took advantage of the market swoon to add to a few beaten-down names.
Amazon.com Inc., which tumbled 35% during the quarter, was a popular buy-the-dip option. Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, Steve Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital and George Soros’s investment firm all increased their stakes in the retail behemoth.
Coatue boosted its Amazon stake by 36%, making it the firm’s fourth-biggest holding.
For TOPLive blog coverage of 13F disclosures, click here.
Other highlights:
- Investing in energy firms became a popular defensive play as the war in Ukraine helped to push oil prices higher in the second quarter. With tech giants such as Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Netflix Inc. swooning, firms like David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management looked to the energy sector for safety.
- Certain tech stocks fell out of favor as Lone Pine, Maverick and Appaloosa all sold shares of Microsoft Corp., while Dan Loeb’s Third Point unloaded its entire stake in the software giant. D1 also pared its Microsoft holding, although it remains the hedge fund’s biggest long wager. Maverick and Duquesne both liquidated their stakes in Netflix Inc., which plunged 53% in the period.
- Third Point disclosed a new $159 million stake in Colgate-Palmolive Co. The consumer-products company was the largest of four new buys for the activist investor. Others included Antero Resources Corp., Walt Disney Co. and T-Mobile.
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