Two Sigma, Soros among hedge funds positioned for tech comeback

© Reuters.

By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Sigma Investments, Hudson (NYSE:HUD) Bay Capital Management, and Soros Fund Management were among the prominent hedge funds that added stakes in mega-cap technology companies in the last quarter, positioning themselves to potentially benefit from the recent comeback in growth stocks.

Two Sigma Investments, for instance, added a new position in Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc of slightly more than 1.5 million shares that was worth $248.5 million at the end of June, according to securities filings.

Hudson Bay Capital added a new position of 4.66 million shares in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) worth nearly $638 million at the end of June, while Soros Fund Management added a new position of nearly 30,000 shares in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc worth $20.1 million at the time of the filing.

Meta Platform's shares are up 12.1% so far this quarter, Apple has gained 26.6% and Tesla's shares have increased 37.8%.

Quarterly filings known as 13-fs are one of the few ways that hedge funds are required to disclose their long positions, but may not reflect current holdings.

Tech and growth stocks have come screaming back in recent weeks after a brutal first half of the year, as some investors bet the Federal Reserve will be less hawkish than previously anticipated in its fight to tame the worst inflation in forty years.

The Russell 1000 Growth Index, which is dominated by tech stocks, is up 17.6% for the current quarter, compared with the 10.5% gain in the Russell 1000 Value index.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up 19%.

Besides mega-cap tech companies, funds also added new positions in smaller growth and tech companies.

Soros, for instance, added 300,000 shares in Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) Inc that were worth $6.1 million at the end of the quarter, while Two Sigma bought 10.6 million shares of Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) worth approximately $140 million at the end of June.

Shares of Snap are down 6.7% for the quarter to date, while shares of Uber are up nearly 59% over the same time.