Viking Global, with $22.5 billion of assets under management, now owns over 10.6 million shares of Michael Kors (KORS), or 5.3% of the apparel and accessory company’s outstanding shares. This is a jump of over 4.5 times the 2.27 million shares Viking owned at the end of the fourth quarter. Despite the stock being up 140% since its late-2011 IPO, I agree with Viking: There might still be room for this high-growth stock to go higher.

So why listen to Viking Global?   Continue Reading »

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Facebook (FB) shares have been red hot in recent days despite the fact that the post IPO lockup expired.

Several high-profile hedge fund managers have taken significant stakes in Facebook (FB) over the last month.  Continue Reading »

Andreas Halvorsen bought 1,954,749 shares of Medication Inc. (MDVN) on August 8, according to GuruFocus Real Time Picks. The founder of hedge fund Viking Global Investors paid $97 per share, on average. After the purchase, he owns 5.37% of the company.

Medivation Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that acquires promising technologies in the late preclinical development phase and develops them quickly and cost-effectively. Medivation Inc. has a market cap of $3.53 billion; its shares were traded at around $94.65 with and P/S ratio of 58.5.  Continue Reading »

Andreas Halvorsen is one of the former protégées of Julian Robertson at his hedge fund Tiger Management, called “Tiger Cubs.” Halvorsen left Tiger Management and, along with several colleagues, founded the long-short equity hedge fund VikingGlobal in 1999. Since then, the low-profile manager’s fund has produced an average annual return of 18.2%, and assets under management have ballooned to $16 billion.

Halvorsen said in his first-quarter letter that he possibly had been too cautious during the quarter, according to Reuters. In the second quarter, he bought 21 new stocks, the largest of which are: State Street Corporation (STT), Eastman Chemical Company (EMN), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Eli Lilly (LLY) and W.R. Grace & Co. (GRA).  Continue Reading »

Andreas Halvorsen is a founding partner of Viking Global Investors LP and currently serves as its CIO. Viking manages two hedge funds invested in equities worldwide.

Before founding Viking, Halvorsen served Tiger Management LLC as senior managing director and the director of equities. He also worked for Morgan Stanley.  Continue Reading »

Viking Global Investors LP was formed in 1999 and is based in Greenwich, Conn. Viking manages two hedge funds invested in equities worldwide. Andreas Halvorsen is a founding partner and currently serves as its CIO Since its foundation, Halvorsen's Viking Global Equities III fund has gained 22% on average per year until March 2009. The largest down period was from September 2001 to March of 2002, when Halvorsen’s portfolio was down about 12%.

Viking is a long/short global equity fund with a bottom-up stock picking approach. “We believe that our thoughtful analysis and disciplined valuation over time yield a diversified portfolio of longs and shorts whose stock price developments will deviate from each other and provide a profitable spread,” said John Myers, a member of the board.  Continue Reading »

Capital One Financial (COF) is a diversified financial institution. It is one of the largest issuers of Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) credit cards in the U.S., and it is one of the largest depositary institutions in the U.S. The firm has an auto finance segment and a global financial services segment, which includes foreign credit cards and other lending such as small-business loans.

The bank reported net income of $813 million, or $1.77 per common diluted share. The firm has been able to increase revenue despite high unemployment in the United States and a slow economic recovery.  Continue Reading »

Hedge fund Viking Global Investors LP just reported its first quarter portfolio. The fund is founded by Andreas Halvorsen. Norwegian Halvorsen launched Viking Global at the end of 1999 with former Tiger Management Fund employees David Ott and Brian Olson. In the second quarter Andreas Halvorsen buys Amazon.com Inc., Seagate Technology, Lyondellbasell Industries Cl A, Goodrich Corp., Humana Inc., Mosaic Company etc. As of 06/30/2011, Viking Global Investors LP owns 59 stocks with a total value of $11.9 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells that have the impact to portfolio of more than .2%.

Viking is a long/short global equity fund with a bottom-up stock picking approach: “We believe that our thoughtful analysis and disciplined valuation over time yield a diversified portfolio of longs and shorts whose stock price developments will deviate from each other and provide a profitable spread.” Viking analysts are encouraged to invest in stock choices they find compelling, regardless of management sentiment: “When we had strong conviction in an investment and scaled it, our success rate increased – in other words, our high conviction has been correlated with improved odds of being right.”  Continue Reading »

Hedge fund Viking Global Investors LP just reported its first quarter portfolio. The fund is founded by Andreas Halvorsen. Norwegian Halvorsen launched Viking Global at the end of 1999 with former Tiger Management Fund employees David Ott and Brian Olson. As of 03/31/2011, Viking Global Investors LP owns 61 stocks with a total value of $11.6 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells.

Viking is a long/short global equity fund with a bottom-up stock picking approach: “We believe that our thoughtful analysis and disciplined valuation over time yield a diversified portfolio of longs and shorts whose stock price developments will deviate from each other and provide a profitable spread.” Viking analysts are encouraged to invest in stock choices they find compelling, regardless of management sentiment: “When we had strong conviction in an investment and scaled it, our success rate increased – in other words, our high conviction has been correlated with improved odds of being right.”  Continue Reading »

Andreas Halvorsen is founder and chief investment officer of Viking Global Investors. Norwegian Halvorsen launched Viking Global at the end of 1999 with former Tiger Management Fund employees David Ott and Brian Olson.

Viking is a long/short global equity fund with a bottom-up stock picking approach: “We believe that our thoughtful analysis and disciplined valuation over time yield a diversified portfolio of longs and shorts whose stock price developments will deviate from each other and provide a profitable spread.” Viking analysts are encouraged to invest in stock choices they find compelling, regardless of management sentiment: “When we had strong conviction in an investment and scaled it, our success rate increased – in other words, our high conviction has been correlated with improved odds of being right.”  Continue Reading »

On March 30, Andreas Holversen’s $12 billion hedge fund, Viking Global, filed a 13G for acquiring shares of their second reported stock for the first quarter of 2011. The firm increased their stake in Universal Health Services Inc. (UHS) by 71.78%, at the average price of $48.79 per share, bringing their total shares to 5,343,992. Halvorsen, a former equities director at Tiger Management, had a disappointing 2010, with returns of less than 3% through early December, compared to some of his fellow tiger cubs, such as Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, which was up 35.5% through November. In his second-quarter of 2010 investor letter, he noted that his team would be “increasing exposure to our highest conviction longs. As a result, I believe we will act with more urgency as trade-offs have to be made continuously between new ideas and exiting positions.” He added, “If market, economic, political or regulatory factors dictate, we will reduce leverage as we see appropriate, yet we will strive to retain significant concentration in our best ideas … To conclude this discussion, I should emphasize that our firm goals are embraced by all analysts and portfolio managers.”

Universal Health Services Inc. comprises approximately 1.8% of Viking’s portfolio, and they now own 5.9% of the company. Universal Health Services is one of the largest health care management companies in the nation, franchising through building or purchasing healthcare properties. Universal Health Services has a market cap of $4.62 billion; its shares were traded at around $47.43 with a P/E ratio of 18.7 and P/S ratio of 0.8. The dividend yield of Universal Health Services Inc. stocks is 0.4%. Universal Health Services Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 16.8% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Universal Health Services Inc. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.  Continue Reading »

Guru Andreas Halvorsen’s hedge fund, Viking Global Investors, bought 6,256,222 shares of H&R Block (HRB) at an average share price of $16.23 on March 21. He now owns 16,664,422 shares. Since then, the stock price has increased by 3% to $16.76. Viking Global Investors was founded in 1999 by Andreas Halvorsen and David Ott, both former Tiger Management members, and has $12 billion under management in two hedge funds. It invests using a bottom-up stocking picking approach and selects securities using a long/short strategy. H&R Block was one of the top 25 largest stocks Halvorsen added to Viking’s portfolio in the last three months of 2010.

H&R Block Inc. is a diversified company involved in tax return preparation, electronic filing of income tax returns and other tax-related services. H&R Block Inc. has a market cap of $5.11 billion; its shares were traded at around $16.76 with a P/E ratio of 11.5 and P/S ratio of 1.3. The dividend yield of H&R Block Inc. stocks is 3.6%  Continue Reading »

Viking Global Investors LP., the hedge fund managed by its founder Andreas Halvorsen, reported their second quarter portfolio. These are the details of buys and sells.

Viking Global had a poor year so far this year, according to his latest shareholder letter. “On an unlevered basis, VGE’s long portfolio was down 11.2% and the short portfolio was down 10.3%, yielding a long-short spread of negative 0.9% (see the attached Base Case Analysis). In the quarter, five long positions cost us 0.5% or more while no short contributed an equal amount.” He wrote.  Continue Reading »

[quote]To: Viking Investors

From: O. Andreas Halvorsen  Continue Reading »

Hedge Fund Viking Global is founded by Andreas Halvorsen, one of the tiger cubs we track. Since starting his firm Viking Global in 1999, his Viking Global Equities III fund has gained 22% on average per year until March 2009. His largest down period was from Sept. 2001 to March of 2002, when his portfolio was down about 12%.

Prior to founding Viking, Mr. Halvorsen was a senior managing director and the director of equities at Tiger Management LLC. He also worked as an investment banker in the corporate finance and merger departments of Morgan Stanley. Prior to moving to the United States, Mr. Halvorsen graduated from the Norwegian Naval Academy and served as a platoon commander on the Norwegian SEAL Team.  Continue Reading »

I'd like to see anyone'd comparison between APOL and ESI. Better debt position vs. better margin? Who wins?  Continue Reading »

The three amigos -- Andreas Halvorsen, David Ott, and Brian Olson -- all worked for Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management. In early 1999, they all left the firm more than a year before the fund closed shop. Initially, each considered starting his own hedge fund until Halvorsen contacted them to form a team approach – therefore, Viking Global was born in October, 1999.

Like Tiger, Viking focuses on fundamental business factors to find companies to short or buy. Employing a long/short strategy has its advantages when the market is declining. In 2008, when the market tanked, Viking was only 30 percent long for the year and just 19 percent long by 4Q08, enabling the fund beating S&P 500 by 37 percent – which was not much, since the index dropped about 37% for the year, essentially they just broke even for the year, according to the firm’s 2008 Q4 letter to shareholders.  Continue Reading »

While a lot of mutual funds and hedge funds alike suffered huge losses in 2008, Viking Global Investors, managed by Andreas Halvorsen eke out a tiny gain. This is his Q3 portfolio update.

Andreas Halvorsen seems to be good at market timing, or he can sense risks and opportunities. In late 2007, he reduced leverage and exposure to the stock market. At the beginning of 2009, he started a long only fund. Like Blue Ridge’s John Griffin, Lone Pine’s Steve Mandel, and Maverick Capital’s Lee Ainslee, Andreas Halvorsen was a Tiger cub, learned from the legendary Julian Robertson.  Continue Reading »

Hallo,

The Carrick Group is a fresh and new private investor group, located in Brent, United Kingdom. Most members of this group are business men, club and ranch owners scattered around UK and across the  Continue Reading »