BOSTON/NEW YORK- Prominent fund managers dove into technology and consumer stocks during the second quarter, helping fuel a rally that has pushed the benchmark S&P 500 near record highs despite the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, regulatory filings released on Friday showed.
Their favorite bets included the so-called FAANG stocks–shares of Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Netflix Inc, and Google-parent Alphabet Inc–which have accounted for bulk of the market’s gains this year. They also snapped up shares of companies such as Zoom and PayPal, whose growth rates have spiked during the pandemic as millions have worked remotely.
Investors ranging from George Soros’ family office, which raised its investment in Amazon.com Inc by 102 percent, to Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, which increased its stake in Microsoft Corp by 74 percent, bet on the powerhouse companies leading the transition to doing nearly everything from home.
Soros and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point established new positions in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd , with Loeb telling clients that worries about China’s relationship with Hong Kong and the United States “created an air pocket in trading.”
Cinctive Capital Management, a hedge fund that employs teams of traders, put on a new position in Zoom Video Communications Inc which is now hosting milestone events like weddings in addition to the more mundane Monday morning office meetings. Its stock price has surged 263 percent this year.
Online payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc, whose stock has gained 79 percent since January as consumers performed an increasing number of cashless transactions, attracted Senator Investment Group and Carlson Capital among its new investors. Cinctive raised its stake by 26 percent and Adage Capital Management increased its stake by 17 percent to 1.5 million shares.
Scott Ferguson’s Sachem Head Capital Management established a new position in Nuance Communications Inc, maker of Dragon speech recognition products. Viking Global Investors raised its position in the company.
