One of the most important dates for the investing community was Monday, May 16, 2022. It was the deadline for hedge-fund managers with at least $100 million in assets under management to file a Form 13F with the SEC.
A 13F gives an under-the-hood look at what the most successful money managers bought, sold, and held during the most recently ended quarter. The data is at least six weeks old by the time it is filed, so it provides clues as to what stocks and trends are captivating fund managers.
The image is from the same source.
Money managers were busy during the first quarter because of market volatility. billionaires were not scared away from making big investments in growth stocks. The four growth stocks were piled into by billionaire money managers.
Meta Platforms is the company formerly known as Facebook. During the first quarter, a number of people took up a stake in Meta. The four companies added approximately 3.99 million shares, 3.66 million shares, and 2.27 million shares.
Although Meta is facing a number of challenges, billionaires see value in the platform.
Meta had 3.64 billion monthly active users across its family of apps in the first quarter. More than half of the world's adult population visits a Meta-owned asset at least once a month. Advertisers know that their best chance of reaching a broad audience is with Meta's social media sites. This is what gives Meta substantive ad-pricing power.
The company is cheap. Wall Street believes that the company will make over 14 earnings per share in the next five years. A forward-year price-to-earnings ratio of 14 is jaw-droppingly low for a company that has consistently grown by double-digit percentage.
Nio launched its electric sedan in March of 2022. The image is from Nio.
Nio is a China-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer that billionaires couldn't get enough of in the first quarter. John Overdeck, David Siegel, and Ray Dalio were all big buyers. The funds added approximately 5.18 million shares.
Nio is facing enormous supply chain challenges. The company has dealt with part shortages tied to COVID-19 lockdowns in various provinces within China.
Despite these challenges, Nio has billionaires on the move. The company was able to quickly ramp up production when supply chain challenges waned, as it was able to produce EV at an annual run rate of over 100,000.
Nio is innovative despite being a newer car. Premium battery options allow for around 620 miles on a single charge for the newly introduced sedans. Nio's sedans should be able to compete with the Model 3 and Model S.
Nio's battery-as-a-service subscription could be a long-term game change.
The image is from the same source.
Datadog was a cloud-based application monitoring and security company that billionaires were excited to invest in during the first quarter sell-off. The active buyers were Ken Griffin's Citadel Advisors, Overdeck and Siegel of Two Sigma, and Israel Englander's Millennium Management. The three companies added approximately 614,200 shares, 203,200 shares, and 175,800 shares.
Since the beginning of the year, Datadog's valuation has proved to be its own worst enemy. The company's shares are still worth 19 times forecast sales for the year and close to 100 times Wall Street's forecast earnings. When the economy slows down, companies in the tech sector feel the pinch.
The good news for Datadog and its shareholders is that the company is at the center of a seemingly unstoppable trend. With businesses shifting their data online and into the cloud at an accelerated pace, the company is positioned perfectly to aid in that transition and help businesses better understand their customers.
It has been successful in courting larger customers. Datadog had 2,250 clients that generated at least $100,000 in annual recurring revenue. Datadog's superior growth rate is unlikely to slow anytime soon, as it was up 60% from the prior-year period.
The image is from the same source.
Novavax is a growth stock that billionaires bought in the first quarter. The buyers were all from Coatue Management, Millennium Management, and Citadel Advisors. In the first quarter, these funds purchased 883,400 shares, 609,300 shares and 484,600 shares.
Novavax's promise and peril rests with the company's COVID-19 vaccine. Novavax delayed filing for emergency-use authorization in a number of key markets. It has been dealing with a slow vaccine ramp up. These concerns have sent shares more than 80% below their high.
Novavax appears to have a highly effective vaccine. The vaccine efficacies of 89.7% in the UK and 90.4% in the U.S. were produced by two large-scale clinical trials last year. The third trial in adolescents featured an 80% vaccine efficacy. Novavax is one of the few drugmakers to hit the 90% vaccine efficacy mark.
Novavax has kept its sales projection of $4 billion to $5 billion. The company will be valued at roughly 2 times Wall Street's projected earnings this year if it can deliver on this forecast. Novavax has over 1.57 billion in cash and cash equivalents, so it looks cheap.
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