PHILIPPE LAFFONT, founder and portfolio manager of Coatue Management, sold and bought some large holdings during the third quarter, according to the 13F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Coatue Management is a $6.3 billion long/short equity hedge fund focusing especially on global technology and telecom sectors.
During the quarter, Laffont invested in 12 new stocks, increased stakes in 8 companies, reduced holdings in 10 stocks, and exited 7 companies. The top ten holdings contribute to 67.08 percent of his fund’s portfolio.
Top Holdings
Coatue has placed 15.07 percent of its money in the world’s most valuable firm, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) It holds 1.42 million shares of Apple that are currently valued at $950.4 million. At the end of the second quarter, the fund had invested 16.72 percent of its portfolio in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), but it sold 89,564 shares in the third quarter.Equinix is the next big holding of Laffont with 13.6 percent of the total portfolio. The hedge fund currently owns 4.1 million Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) shares worth $857.8 million. Coatue made no change in its Equinix holdings from the second quarter.
The other top holdings are Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED), with 7.51 percent of the portfolio (16 million shares worth $474 million), Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA), with 6.26 percent of the portfolio (6.5 million shares worth $395 million), and Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) with 5.14 percent ($323 million worth of shares).
Major New Positions
Coatue added News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS) to its portfolio by purchasing 12.7 million shares for $312 million. Another big new addition was Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), where the hedge fund bought 2 million shares for $196.4 million. Coatue also invested in Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) by acquiring 3.3 million shares for $152.5 million.
Laffont aslo made a small investment in Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) 6.85% Pfd. He bought 1.85 million VIAB shares for $99 million. The other similar investment was in NII Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NIHD), a wireless communications company, in which he invested $56 million.
Closed Positions
Laffont sold his entire holding of 5,271,279 shares in Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN) The other closed positions were Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) (sold 525,872 shares), Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) (sold 685,782 shares), Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ:DRIV) (sold 576,792 shares), and AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) (sold 131,505 shares).
