Patrick McCormack's Tiger Consumer Starts Skechers (SKX) Stake

Patrick McCormack's hedge fund Tiger Consumer Management has just filed a 13G with the SEC regarding Skechers USA (SKX). Due to portfolio activity on October 28th, Tiger Consumer has revealed a 5.69% ownership stake with 2,060,317 shares. This is a brand new position for the hedge fund as they did not own shares as of their last SEC disclosure on June 30th. Other activity out of McCormack's fund includes an increase in their Medifast (MED) position a few months ago.

What's interesting about McCormack's Skechers stake is that it's not the first time he's owned it. Tiger Consumer showed a position in SKX back in the first quarter of 2010. But then in the second quarter, disclosures revealed they had sold completely out of the position. But now in the fourth quarter, they own SKX again so we'll have to see how long they own it this time around.

Tiger Consumer is one of the many firms seeded by Tiger Management founder, Julian Robertson. And as its fund name implies, Tiger Consumer focuses primarily on the consumer sector.

Taken from Google Finance, Skechers "design and market Skechers-branded contemporary footwear for men, women and children under several lines. addition to Skechers-branded lines, the Company also offers several designer, fashion and street-focused footwear lines for men, women and children. These lines are branded and marketed separately from Skechers and appeal to specific audiences. Its brands are sold through department stores, specialty stores, athletic retailers, and boutiques as well as catalog and Internet retailers."

Hedge Fund Tiger Global Buys LinkedIn Stake, Adds to Portfolio of Web Companies

Late last week, Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global took a 1% stake in LinkedIn, a professional networking site for $20 million. This is a private investment and was made with existing shareholders. Last week we also highlighted how Tiger Global bought a stake in Russian travel portal Anywayanyday.com. Given this recent wave of private investment activity, we wanted to closely examine the themes at play here.

As we mentioned last week, part of Coleman's portfolio allocation allows him to invest in private companies given his roots as a technology analyst and his focus on the space. Tiger Global was seeded by legendary fund manager Julian Robertson. Prior to being seeded, Coleman was a technology analyst at Robertson's Tiger Management. It seems Coleman and his team have identified a few secular themes in the online space judging by their investments. Loosely speaking, it appears as though he is targeting two themes: 1. Online search/portals for travel and 2. Social media/networking.

Firstly, he is focused on portals and online travel, by no means a new business. Companies such as Priceline (PCLN), Expedia (EXPE), and Orbitz (OWW) are all publicly traded and numerous hedge funds have held positions in these stocks off and on. The fact that these companies are all publicly traded also could provide a hint as to part of Coleman's motivation here. The intriguing aspect of all this is that the private companies he's investing in more than likely will be strong candidates for IPO's. He's essentially getting in on the ground floor (or as close as he can).

Tiger has taken this investment one step further by focusing on emerging markets. While Coleman has stakes in some US based companies, he has also purchased stakes in the following: Anywayanyday.com (a Russian travel portal), Yandex (a Russian search/portal company), makemytrip.com (an Indian travel site which recently filed to go public, as well as Maktoob (an Arabic portal site that was acquired by Yahoo). You can already see evidence of the 'going public cycle' with makemytrip.com filing for an IPO.

The second theme Tiger Global is playing here is social media/networking and who can blame them. Social networking is currently the adrenaline in the online world and Web 2.0 is the adrenal gland pumping it out. The hedge fund's investment in LinkedIn is just the latest example. Consider that they also bought a stake in Zynga Game Network in December, a social gaming site. Additionally, we've highlighted Tiger's position in Yonja, a Turkish social media site. And speaking of social media, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention you can follow @marketfolly on Twitter and find us on Facebook.

It's very clear that Coleman's hedge fund sees upside in these private companies. They are positioning themselves as best possible to ride the impending social media 'going public' wave. While the majority of hedge funds trade solely in public markets, the fact that Tiger Global has allocated some of their portfolio to private investments ala a venture capital firm gives them a leg up if this secular trend continues to gain steam.

For the rest of their investments, you can view Tiger Global's portfolio here.

Hedge Fund Axial Capital Buys More QLT Inc (QLTI)

Eliav Assouline and Marc Andersen's hedge fund Axial Capital Management just filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding shares of QLT Inc (QLTI). Per the filing, Axial purchased 37,226 shares of QLTI at $5.72 per share. This brings their cumulative position in the name to 6,341,812 shares. As we've detailed a few times prior, Axial has been accumulating QLTI shares with purchases in early June and early July as well.

Axial was seeded by legendary hedgie Julian Robertson back in 2005 and the hedge fund resides in the same offices as Tiger Management at 101 Park Avenue. You can view the proverbial 'Tiger Family Tree' of managers that Robertson has seeded/spawned there. Axial was recently mentioned as one of Institutional Investor's 'Hedge Fund Rising Stars.'

Taken from Google Finance, QLT Inc is "engaged in the development and commercialization of therapies for the eye. The Company focuses on its commercial product, Visudyne, for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), and developing its ophthalmic product candidates."

To see what other prominent managers are buying, head to our hedge fund portfolio tracking series and scroll through the latest developments.

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Purchases Stake in Russian Travel Portal Anywayanyday.com

While we typically cover investments hedge funds make in public companies, we like to keep an eye on investments made in private companies as well. The reason? A potential lead to secular themes that investment firms are targeting. Case in point: hedge fund Tiger Global and its portfolio of web properties.

According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, Chase Coleman's hedge fund has paid $10 million for a 40% stake in Anywayanyday.com, an online ticket booking site in Russia. The site is owned by an affiliate of Valars, a grain trading company also based in Russia. The website currently garners around 3% of the Russian online airline ticket sales market and sees yearly revenue of around $5 million. The company is also planning to 'revitalize' its presence in the hotel booking segment as well.

Those of you familiar with Chase Coleman's hedge fund firm will already know that they have a small portion of the portfolio allocated to private investments. And more often than not, that allocation is targeted at the technology sector. Tiger Global of course was founded by Chase Coleman after being seeded by legendary hedge fund manager Julian Robertson.

Glancing at some of Tiger Global's other private stakes, you start to see a theme of emerging market online portals. Tiger also owns a stake in Yandex, a Russian search/portal company, a position in Yonja (a Turkish social media site), Indian focused online travel site makemytrip.com (which recently filed to go public), as well as a stake in Maktoob (an Arabic portal site that was acquired by Yahoo). Examining Tiger's public equity stakes, you see the online portal theme continues. As of the first quarter, they also owned sizable stakes in Google (GOOG), Mercadolibre (MELI), and Priceline.com (PCLN). They definitely have a decent amount of exposure to the portal/travel meme in both public and private stakes.

Those of you interested in the rest of Coleman's investments can check out Tiger Global's portfolio.

Pat McCormack's Tiger Consumer Initiates Sonic Automotive (SAH) Position

Patrick McCormack's hedge fund Tiger Consumer Management recently filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Sonic Automotive (SAH). The disclosure was made due to portfolio activity on June 29th, 2010 and Tiger Consumer now shows a 5.13% ownership stake in SAH with 2,081,757 shares. This is a brand new position for the hedge fund because they did not own any Sonic Automative in the first quarter (as of March 31st, 2010). Shares of SAH are trading at $8.50, a level where they temporarily bottomed back in November 2009. In the throngs of the crisis, Sonic Automotive traded as low as $0.72. We've previously covered Tiger Consumer's other new position as well.

This is the second time we've detailed portfolio activity from Pat McCormack's hedge fund. For those unfamiliar, Tiger Consumer was seeded by Julian Robertson, the legendary manager and founder of Tiger Management. McCormack's fund offices at the same Park Avenue address as Robertson's former fund. Tiger Consumer reported $919 million in assets invested on the long side as of March 31st, 2010. As its name implies, the fund focuses on the consumer sector and is one of the 'Tiger Seed' hedge funds (you can view the entire Tiger hedge fund family tree here).

Taken from Google Finance, Sonic Automotive "operates as an automotive retailer in the United States. As of January 31, 2009, the Company operated 145 dealership franchises at 122 dealership locations, representing 29 different brands of cars and light trucks, and 26 collision repair centers in 15 states."

For the latest investments from top managers, head to our hedge fund portfolio tracking series updated daily.

Hedge Fund Axial Capital Again Adds To QLT Inc (QLTI) Stake

Literally two days ago we detailed how Eliav Assouline and Marc Andersen's hedge fund Axial Capital was buying shares of QLT Inc (QLTI). This trend continues as Axial recently filed another Form 4 with the SEC regarding QLTI shares. On July 6th, 2010, Axial purchased 109,157 shares of QLT Inc. at a price of $5.79 per share. This brings their total ownership up to 6,304,586 shares. Eliav and Andersen's hedge fund has been accumulating shares over the span of a few months now, continuing to buy as QLTI trades lower.

The interesting thing with this play is that many have characterized QLT Inc as a value trap or a 'cigarette-butt' type of investment. It is essentially a play on the biotech company's royalty stream. Some argue that while the stream is healthy now, it is likely to decline. Assouline and Andersen seem to disagree as they continue to accumulate shares.

A little background on the firm for those unfamiliar: Julian Robertson seeded Axial in 2005 and the hedge fund actually resides in the same offices as legendary Tiger Management at 101 Park Avenue. You can view the proverbial 'Tiger Family Tree' of hedge fund managers that Robertson has spawned via that link. As of Axial's last 13F filing, they disclosed $799 million in assets invested in US equities.

Taken from Google Finance, "biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in the development and commercialization of therapies for the eye. The Company focuses on its commercial product, Visudyne, for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), and developing its ophthalmic product candidates."

Stay up to date with the latest investments from top hedge fund managers at MarketFolly.com.

Hedge Fund Axial Capital Buys More QLT Inc (QLTI)

Eliav Assouline and Marc Andersen's hedge fund firm Axial Capital Management recently filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding shares of QLT Inc (QLTI). Per the filing, we see that Axial bought 419,200 shares of QLTI spread out over the course of three days. They purchased:

139,200 shares at $5.74 on June 30th, 2010
80,000 shares at $5.75 on July 1st, 2010
200,000 shares at $5.73 on July 2nd, 2010

After their purchases, Axial's total position in QLTI totals 6,195,429 shares. This is not the first time Assouline and Andersen's hedge fund have bought shares recently either. Back in early June, Axial bought QLTI at an average cost of $6.20. Shares have obviously decreased drastically in the one month that's elapsed and that has whet their appetite for more shares.

This is only the third time we've covered Assouline and Andersen's hedge fund as our previous posts include detailing their addition to another position as well. Julian Robertson seeded Axial in 2005 and the hedge fund offices out of Tiger Management's old headquarters at 101 Park Avenue. You can view the proverbial 'Tiger Family Tree' of hedge fund managers here. As of their last 13F filing, Axial disclosed $799 million in assets invested in US equities.

Taken from Google Finance, QLT is "biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in the development and commercialization of therapies for the eye. The Company focuses on its commercial product, Visudyne, for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), and developing its ophthalmic product candidates."

For more of the latest moves from prominent investment managers, stay up to date with our daily hedge fund portfolio tracking series.

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Shows Large Put Positions on Market Indexes: 13F Filing Q1 2010

(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund filings.)

Next up is Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global. Coleman is considered a 'Tiger Seed' because he previously plied his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at legendary fund Tiger Management. He then became one of the many managers Robertson seeded in an effort to recognize up and coming talent. Coleman is also one of the many managers selected to be in the Tiger Cub portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can piggyback the investment ideas of numerous top hedge fund managers (Market Folly readers can receive a free 30-day trial if interested).

The positions listed below were Tiger Global's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2010 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted:


Brand New Positions
Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) Puts
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Puts
Electronic Arts (ERTS)
Electronic Arts (ERTS) Calls
Apollo Group (APOL) Calls
Liberty Global (LBTYA) Calls
Nike (NKE)
Genpact (G)
Kraft (KFT)
Liberty Capital (LCAPA)
American Tower (AMT)
Commscope (CTV)
Live Nation (LYV)
Duoyuan (DGW)
Amazon (AMZN)
Lincare Holdings (LNCR)
Shanda Games (GAME)
Madison Square Garden (MSG) ~ spin-off as a result of their stake in Cablevision
Symetra Financial (SYA)
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)


Increased Positions
Western Union (WU): Increased position size by 577%
Liberty Global (LBTYA): Increased by 204.6%
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Increased by 200%
Apple (AAPL): Increased by 62.2%
Lockheed Martin (LMT): Increased by 45%
Google (GOOG): Increased by 35%
Apollo Group (APOL): Increased by 30%
Mercadolibre (MELI): Increased by 24.6%
Discovery Communications (DISCK): Increased by 23%


Reduced Positions
Yahoo (YHOO): Reduced position size by 79.8%
E*Trade Financial (ETFC): Reduced by 46.7%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced by 35%
Monsanto (MON): Reduced by 34.6%
Transdigm Group (TDG): Reduced by 34.1%
IAC Interactive (IACI): Reduced by 28%
Cablevision (CVC): Reduced by 25.7%


Positions They Sold Out of Completely
Qualcomm (QCOM)
McDonalds (MCD)
IMS Health (RX)
Teradata (TDC)
Ebix (EBIX)
Discovery (DISCA)
Gushan Environmental (GU)


Top 15 Holdings (by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing)

1. Powershares QQQ Trust (QQQQ) Puts: 9.0%

2. Apollo Group (APOL): 8.32%

3. DirecTV (DTV): 7.87%

4. Pepsico (PEP): 5.96%

5. Apollo Group (APOL) Calls: 5.39%

6. Google (GOOG): 4.47%

7. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Puts: 4.45%

8. Mercadolibre (MELI): 4.06%

9. Lockheed Martin (LMT): 3.51%

10. Electronic Arts (ERTS) Calls: 3.41%

11. Mastercard (MA): 3.34%

12. Priceline.com (PCLN): 2.93%

13. Apple (AAPL): 2.80%

14. Liberty Global (LBTYA): 2.75%

15. Visa (V): 2.42%

Alright, there's a lot to cover here. The most noteworthy thing to take away from Coleman's portfolio is the fact that in the first quarter he started massive put positions on the Nasdaq-100 (QQQQ) and S&P 500 (SPY). These could merely be hedges, or they could be a directional bet, we don't know. What we do know though, is that these are very sizable positions. These puts are likely already profitable positions for the fund as well (that is, unless for some reasons they purchased the puts at the lows in February, which seems unlikely).

Tiger Global was quite active in options markets in the first quarter as they also started a large new position in Apollo Group calls. This is a complement to their already large position in common stock of the company as well, making it by far one of their biggest company specific bets. Additionally, we point out their large stake in DirecTV (DTV) because in Tiger Global's fourth quarter letter, Coleman indicated that this was one of their highest conviction picks as they believe that DTV will increase leverage to buyback shares and then their cashflow will cover current debt.. Tiger has also built up a sizable long position in Electronic Arts (ERTS) via common shares and calls.

Regarding positions they decreased, Tiger sold nearly 80% of their Yahoo (YHOO) position and almost half of their E*Trade Financial (ETFC) position. While TIger Global added significantly to their Western Union (WU) stake, the position is still not very large in the context of their overall portfolio. Other positions they notably added to in the first quarter include Hewlett Packard and Liberty Global.

Assets reported on the 13F filing were $4.9 billion this quarter. Data from the SEC is aggregated and sorted automatically by Alphaclone, our source for hedge fund tracking, replicating, and performance backtesting (Market Folly readers can receive a special free 30 day trial). Remember that these filings are not representative of the hedge fund's entire base of AUM.

This post is part of our daily hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already detailed activity from numerous managers so click the links below to be taken to the respective portfolio updates: Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Eddie Lampert's RBS Partners, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Management, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Dan Loeb's Third Point, and John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co. Be sure to check back daily for new hedge fund updates.

Jonathan Auerbach's Hedge Fund Hound Partners Discloses Position

Jonathan Auerbach's hedge fund Hound Partners has filed a Form 4 and an amended 13D with the SEC regarding shares of Avantair (AAIR). In the filings, we see that Hound was merely re-shuffling their portfolio between their related investment vehicle entities. However, it did give us a glance as to their position sizing of a position they already held. Hound Partners now shows a 13.66% stake in Avantair with 3,977,714 shares. This means they practically kept their stake unchanged as they've only sold 3,846 shares since October 2009 when we saw their last disclosure regarding this position.

Their current stake includes 2,797,274 shares that may be acquired upon conversion of Series A convertible preferred stock into common stock. Those shares have a conversion price of $3.574909 and each share of Series A preferred can be converted into 27.973 shares of common. In terms of other recent activity out of this hedge fund we also updated you in April that Hound Partners disclosed two positions.

Hound is a New York based firm that Auerbach started with assistance from legendary hedgie Julian Robertson. He is one of the many 'Tiger Seeds' that Robertson has seeded in an attempt to sprout up talented new investment managers. Auerbach of course previously worked for Robertson at legendary hedge fund Tiger Management.

Taken from Google Finance, Avantair is "engaged in the sale of fractional ownership interests and charter card usage of professionally piloted aircraft for personal and business use and the management of its aircraft fleet. As of June 30, 2009, the Company operated 52 aircraft within its fleet, which is comprised of 46 aircraft for fractional ownership, five company- owned core aircraft and one leased and company- managed aircraft."

For more from Jonathan Auerbach's firm, you can view our previous coverage of Hound Partners portfolio.

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Starts Apollo Group (APOL) Stake, Joins Other Hedgies

In a 13G filed with the SEC, Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global has disclosed a brand new position in Apollo Group (APOL). The filing was made due to activity on January 15th, 2010 and they now show an 8% ownership stake with 12,402,876 shares. This is a new holding for them as they did not own APOL when we last looked at Tiger's portfolio.

Tiger was one of the many funds mentioned in our recent post about how hedge funds have been bullish on tower stocks. We could definitely say the same about education stocks as many of the 'Tiger Cub' funds are now long APOL and/or Strayer Education (STRA). David Stemerman's Conatus Capital had a large APOL stake when last we looked, and Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital also owned lots of Apollo Group, amongst many other hedge funds. We'll continue to watch this trend and will see if hedgies were out adding to this play in the fourth quarter of 2009 or not.

Chase Coleman is a 'Tiger Cub' because he previously plied his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. Coleman is also considered a 'Tiger Seed' because he is one of the few managers that Robertson actually seeded himself in an effort to recognize talented up and coming managers. Coleman's hedge fund is one of the many funds that comprises the Tiger Cub Portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can replicate their positions and enjoy 15.5% annualized returns since 2000.

Those of you wanting to see the specifics of Tiger's specific position can view the extracted screenshot from the SEC filing below:

(click to enlarge)

Taken from Google Finance, Apollo Group is "is a private education provider. The Company offers educational programs and services both online and on-campus at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, The University of Phoenix, Inc. (University of Phoenix), Western International University, Inc. (Western International University), Institute for Professional Development (IPD), The College for Financial Planning Institutes Corporation (CFFP), and Meritus University, Inc. (Meritus)."