Tiger Cubs and their offspring enjoyed mixed success in March. But they still mostly managed to beat the S&P 500 in what wound up being a losing month for the index.
What’s more, most of the felines continued to outperform the broad market indices for the quarter thanks in large part to their short books, underscoring their ability to live up to the “hedge fund” moniker. This was especially heartening to their investors as many of the Tigers’ largest positions are among the most volatile stocks since the broad sell-off began earlier in the year.
D1 Capital Partners’ public portfolio continues to lead the way, up 7.1 percent for the quarter after losing just 58 basis points in March, says someone who has seen the results. Not bad considering its largest position, Instacart parent Maplebear, was down about 3 percent last month. It accounted for more than 16 percent of U.S.-listed long positions at year-end.
Viking Global Investors’ two main funds were also in the black in the first quarter. Viking Global Equities, the long-short fund, was up 1.6 percent, and Viking Long Fund gained 1.4 percent, according to an investor. It’s likely, shorts accounted for the slight difference in the two returns.
Institutional Investor previously reported that in the fourth quarter the hedge fund firm boosted its bet on financial services companies. Viking doubled its position in JPMorgan Chase, now its largest U.S. long, and increased its stake in Charles Schwab by more than 500 percent, making it the fifth-largest long. As a result, its five biggest U.S.-listed long positions were financial services or payments companies: JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp, Visa, Bank of America, and Schwab.
Tiger Global’s long-short fund, for its part, fell 3.1 percent in March but remained up 2.5 percent for the quarter, according to two sources who are familiar with the results. At year-end, Meta Platforms and Microsoft were the two largest U.S.-listed longs, responsible for roughly one-quarter of U.S. assets. Meta lost about 1.6 percent for the quarter, and Microsoft was down nearly 11 percent.
Coatue Management declined about 2 percent in March but remained barely in the black for the quarter, up 10 basis points, according to someone who saw the results. Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft ranked among its four largest longs at year-end, making up about 15 percent of U.S.-listed assets.
Lone Pine Capital posted small losses for the quarter. Its long-short fund was down about 1 percent and its long only fund dropped 3 percent, the difference again apparently being the shorts, says an investor. Meta and Amazon were its two largest U.S.-listed longs at year-end, accounting for about 15 percent of the U.S. portfolio.
Maverick Capital’s main long-short fund, Maverick Fund, was down about 3.5 percent in March but was up 1.5 percent for the quarter, according to a private hedge fund database. Maverick Long dropped more than 7 percent for the month and 2.7 percent for the quarter. Maverick Long Enhanced lost nearly 8 percent in March and about 1.9 percent for the quarter, suggesting the firm’s short book kept the hedge fund in positive territory.
Sylebra Capital is one of the biggest Tiger losers so far this year. It fell 3.3 percent in March and was down 7.8 percent for the quarter, say two people who have seen the results. The portfolio, which is designed to be stable during volatile times, enjoyed strong gains from its shorts, but they were more than offset by losses on the long side by two core positions, explains someone who saw the results.
II previously reported that Valiant Capital Partners rose a little more than 4 percent in the first quarter. Over the first two months of the year, when Valiant climbed less than 5 percent, longs cost the fund more than six percentage points of performance, according to the hedge fund’s February exposure report, obtained by II. However, the shorts offset this loss, kicking in 10.8 percent to performance. Macro added 79 basis points.
II also reported recently that Discovery Capital Management — a combination macro and fundamental equity fund — was down 1.95 percent in March and 3.46 percent for the first quarter. March declines were driven by “structural long exposure” in emerging markets, especially Argentina, Turkey, and Mexico, as well as by long positions in U.S. credit, according to the March monthly report, obtained by II. The losses were partially offset by gains in the equity book, thanks to part to shorts in financials and consumer discretionary names.