Phillippe Laffont's Coatue shifted money in technology amid fourth quarter rally
Phillippe Laffont’s Coatue made a flurry of changes to his portfolio in the fourth quarter, including shifts within the technology sector in the midst of the fourth quarter’s big rally. Laffont, one of the “Tiger Cub” fund managers who worked under the late Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, lowered his exposure to Nvidia and Meta Platforms by more than 4% and 8%, respectively, according to regulatory fillings. Even after the moves, the pair remain Coatue’s two largest holdings. That profit taking came at the tail end of a strong year for both names, with Nvidia rallying more than 230% and Meta adding more than 190%. Nvidia and Meta are part of a group of mega-cap tech stocks dubbed the ” Magnificent 7 ” that are credited with pushing the market higher in in 2023 and early this year. NVDA META,.SPX 1Y mountain Nvidia, Meta and the S & P 500 over the last year Similarly, Daniel Sundheim’s D1 Capital zeroed out its position in Nvidia after the artificial intelligence darling’s big year in 2023. Nvidia is already up another 47% in 2024. Nvidia and Meta are only two of many notable cutbacks made by Laffont in the fourth quarter. He also slashed his position in Taiwan Semiconductor by more than 86% in the quarter, to just over $32 million. The MIT alum chopped holding in Alphabet stake, lowering his Class A shares position by 64% and the Class B’s by 74%. Also of note, he pulled back his Intuit and Uber holdings by more than 40% each. Still, that doesn’t necessarily indicate a turn in sentiment on the sector. Laffont opened new positions in Salesforce , Apple and ServiceNow . He also riased his Adobe stake by almost 20%, making the stock his ninth largest holding. Beyond Nvidia and Meta, Advanced Micro Devices , Amazon , Microsoft , Netflix and Tesla are the next biggest holdings in the fund. As of the fourth quarter, technology accounts for more than 59% of Coatue, according to InsiderScore. Technology has continued to rally in the new year. The Nasdaq Composite has added more than 5% in 2024, making it the best performer of the three major indexes. The Nasdaq finished 2023 up more than 43%, helped by a gain of more than 13% in the fourth quarter alone. Outside of tech, Laffont opened stakes in Domino’s Pizza and Ford Motor . He reduced his exposure to pharmaceutical names Moderna and Eli Lilly , while zeroing out what had been a $65-million position in Paramount Global.
