Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), founding partner and chief investment officer of Viking Global Investors LP, disclosed in a regulatory SEC 13G filing that his firm entered positions in PepGen Inc. (PEPG, Financial) last week. The firm also revealed in a quarterly 13F holdings report that its top trades during the first quarter included a new holding in Mastercard Inc. (MA, Financial), a reduction to its stake in Glingko Bioworks Holdings Inc. (DNA, Financial) and the closure of its positions in Humana Inc. (HUM, Financial) and Twilio Inc. (TWLO, Financial).
Prior to starting Viking Global, Halvorsen worked as senior managing director and director of equities at Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio)’s Tiger Global Management. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm employs a research intensive, long-term-focused investment approach. Viking invests in companies based on a thorough assessment of a company’s business model, fundamental data, management quality and cyclical and sector trends.
As of March, the firm’s $24.64 billion 13F equity portfolio contains 90 stocks, with 16 new positions and a quarterly turnover ratio of 20%. The top three sectors in terms of weight are health care, financial services and technology, accounting for 27.20%, 20.67% and 13.33% of the equity portfolio.
Investors should be aware that 13F filings do not give a complete picture of a firm’s holdings as the reports only include its positions in U.S. stocks and American depository receipts, but they can still provide valuable information. Further, the reports only reflect trades and holdings as of the most-recent portfolio filing date, which may or may not be held by the reporting firm today or even when this article was published.
PepGen
According to GuruFocus Real-Time Picks, a Premium feature based on Schedule 13D and 13G filings, Viking purchased 1,793,923 shares of PepGen (PEPG, Financial), allocating 0.08% of its equity portfolio to the stake. Shares averaged $11.15 on the May 10 transaction date.
The clinical-stage biotech company's equity-to-asset ratio of 0.93 outperforms more than 86% of global competitors, suggesting good financial strength. However, the company does not have enough data to compute a rank for growth, GF Value and momentum and thus, the GF Score may give an incomplete picture of a stock’s potential.
Mastercard
During the first quarter, Viking invested in 1,793,488 shares of Mastercard (MA, Financial), giving the position 2.60% equity portfolio weight.
Shares of Mastercard averaged $359.86 during the first quarter; the stock is modestly undervalued based on Monday’s price-to-GF-Value ratio of 0.86.
The Purchase, New York-based credit card company has a GF Score of 98 out of 100, driven by a rank of 10 out of 10 for profitability, growth and momentum and a GF Value rank of 9 out of 10 despite financial strength ranking just 6 out of 10.
Other gurus with holdings in Mastercard include Chuck Akre (Trades, Portfolio)’s Akre Capital Management, Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio)’s Fisher Investments and Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A)(BRK.B).
Glingko Bioworks
The firm sold 288 million shares of Glingko Bioworks (DNA, Financial), slashing 84.94% of its position and 6.94% of its equity portfolio. Shares of Glingko Bioworks averaged $4.88 during the first quarter.
The Boston-based health care company has a GF Score of 21 out of 100 based on a financial strength rank of 7 out of 10 and a profitability rank of 1 out of 10. Despite this, the company does not have enough data to compute a rank for growth, GF Value and momentum and thus, the GF Score may give an incomplete picture of the stock’s potential.
Humana
Viking sold all 2,663,368 shares of Humana (HUM, Financial), trimming 3.58% of its equity portfolio.
Shares of Humana averaged $417.95 during the first quarter; the stock is modestly undervalued based on Monday’s price-to-GF Value ratio of 0.90.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based health care plans company has a GF Score of 93 out of 100 based on a growth rank of 10 out of 10, a momentum rank of 9 out of 10, a profitability rank of 8 out of 10, a GF Value rank of 7 out of 10 and a financial strength rank of 6 out of 10.
Twilio
The firm sold all 2,980,398 shares of Twilio (TWLO, Financial), trimming 2.28% of its equity portfolio. Shares averaged $182.37 during the first quarter.
The San Francisco-based communication-as-a-service company has a GF Score of 65 out of 100, driven by a profitability rank of 3 out of 10 and a rank of 2 out of 10 for GF Value and momentum despite growth ranking 8 out of 10 and financial strength ranking 7 out of 10. GuruFocus’ GF Value line labeled the stock as a possible value trap given the stock’s low price-to-GF Value ratio of 0.26 and low profitability and momentum rank.
