One of Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio)’s “Tiger Cubs,” Robert Karr (Trades, Portfolio) is known for an investment strategy that emphasizes a concentrated portfolio of choice companies (his preference is technology-related stocks).
Karr’s portfolio remains concentrated at nine stakes; he made no new buys in the first quarter and added to only three stakes, but those additions did demonstrate his continuing interest in investing in new technologies. After four consecutive quarters of selling portions of his stake, Karr now has bought shares of Yelp Inc (YELP, Financial), a San Francisco-based multinational corporation that develops, hosts and markets Yelp.com and the Yelp mobile app, in each of the last two quarters.
In the first quarter of 2015, he bought 325,000 shares for an average price of $49.51 per share, raising his stake in YELP to its highest level in more than a year. The transaction had a 3.52% impact on his portfolio.
Yelp has a market cap of $3.52 billion and an enterprise value of $3.18 billion. It has a P/E of 94.4, a Price/Book of 5.3 and a Price/Sales of 8.6. Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio) and Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Yelp in their portfolios.
Karr also added to his existing stakes in TAL Education Group (XRS, Financial) and Mead Johnson Nutrition Co (MJN, Financial).
Karr did more selling than buying in the first quarter, though, and his most significant sale probably was his reduction of his third-most valuable stake, Baidu Inc (BIDU, Financial), a Chinese web services company. Karr sold 752,400 shares for an average price of $214.25 per share. The deal had a -16.45% impact on Karr’s portfolio.
Baidu has a market cap of $71.51 billion and an enterprise value of $66.46 billion. It has a P/E of 34.4, a Price/Book of 8.3 and a Price/Sales of 8.5. Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio), Dodge & Cox, Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio), Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), Lee Ainslie (Trades, Portfolio), Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio), George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), Louis Moore Bacon (Trades, Portfolio), John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Howard Marks (Trades, Portfolio), Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Stanley Druckenmiller (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), RS Investment Management (Trades, Portfolio), Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio), Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) and First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Baidu in their portfolios. Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) and John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio) sold their stakes in the first quarter.
Karr also reduced his stakes in Google Inc (GOOGL, Financial) and Tarena International Inc (TEDU, Financial) in the first quarter, and he completely sold his stakes in two other companies – Veeco Instruments Inc (VECO, Financial) and 21Vianet Group Inc (VNET, Financial). He sold 698,156 shares of Veeco Instruments, a manufacturer of electronic parts, for an average price of $31.28 per share. The transaction had a -4.7% impact on his portfolio.
Veeco has a market cap of $1.26 billion and an enterprise value of $866.85 million. It has a Price/Book of 1.6 and a Price/Sales of 3.1. Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio), First Pacific Advisors (Trades, Portfolio), FPA Capital Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) and Murray Stahl (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Veeco in their portfolios.
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