Light Street Capital Management continues to pace the Tiger kingdom at the end of the first quarter.
The hedge fund firm’s long-short fund posted a 3.56 percent gain March, boosting its return for the year to 35.33 percent. Its long-only fund rose 3.06 last month and is up 26.3 percent for the year.
Institutional Investor previously reported that founder Glen Kacher has stressed to investors and others that the world is undergoing an “unprecedented AI infrastructure build.” In his fourth-quarter client letter, obtained by II, he made the case for aggressively pursuing AI-related investments.
Two semiconductor giants — Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices — combined to account for more than one-quarter of Light Street’s U.S. common stock assets at year-end, according to the firm’s most recent 13F filing. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing was the fourth-largest long. In the first quarter, Nvidia surged more than 80 percent, but it has backed off a bit this month.
Another firm having a very strong year is Tiger Grandcub Sylebra Capital. It was up 22.6 percent in the first quarter, say two people who have seen the results. Its longs accounted for 10.1 percent and its shorts for 13.5 percent of gross gains, according to someone familiar with the results.
As II has reported, Dan Gibson runs his fund much differently than does the typical Tiger descendant who gravitates to well-known and widely held tech, internet, and/or consumer stocks. He generally runs a low net exposure to lesser-known stocks. One would be hard pressed to find the most popular hedge fund stocks among Gibson’s top-ten holdings, let alone the portfolio in general. For example, at year-end, three stocks combined accounted for more than 40 percent of the U.S. common stock portfolio. But none of them is exactly a household name.
They are Elastic NV, an American-Dutch search company; Impinj, a manufacturer of radio-frequency identification devices and software; and RingCentral, a provider of cloud-based communication and collaboration products and services.
Stephen Mandel Jr.’s Lone Pine Capital is also off to a good start. Lone Cypress, the long-short fund, rose 15 percent for the quarter and long-only fund Lone Cascade gained 14 percent, according to an investor. Mandel has been emphasizing the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. At year-end, Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Microsoft represented three of the firm’s four largest longs and accounted for nearly one-quarter of U.S. common stock assets.
Untitled Investments, a lesser-known Tiger descendant, was up 11 percent for the quarter after climbing 3 percent in March, says someone who saw the results. It is headed by Neeraj Chandra, formerly a partner at Tiger Global Management. The firm’s two largest U.S.-listed longs — consulting giant Gartner and cloud computing giant Microsoft — accounted for more than 27 percent of assets at year-end. No. 3 long nCino, which provides cloud-based banking software, represented 10 percent of assets.
Several better-known firms’ hedge funds are faring a little worse than the leaders this year even as their long-only funds outperform the market indices.
For example, Tiger Global Management’s long-short fund was up 7.6 percent for the quarter after gaining 2 percent in March and the long-only fund jumped 13.4 percent after rising 2.7 percent last month, reports someone who saw the results. At year-end, Meta, Microsoft, and Apollo Global Management remained the firm’s top-three holdings, accounting for more than 40 percent of U.S. common stock assets, according to a 13F filing.
At Viking Global Investors, the hedge fund, Viking Global Equities, was up 5.8 percent for the quarter, says someone who saw the results. Viking Long Fund fared better, jumping 10.1 percent for the quarter.
More than likely, the long-short funds of both Tiger Global and Viking were hurt somewhat by their short books.
Coatue Management was up 6.6 percent for the quarter after tacking on 1.6 percent last month, says a knowledgeable source.
Valiant Capital Partners, for its part, was up about 5 percent for the quarter after losing 2.35 percent in March, according to the firm’s monthly communication with investors, seen by Institutional Investor. II previously reported that in his fourth-quarter letter, Valiant founder Chris Hansen expressed concern about the direction of the stock market and recommended that asset managers increase fixed-income holdings to protect their portfolios.