Chase Coleman Slashes Stake in SurveyMonkey

Early investor decides its time to cut back on company

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Jul 02, 2019
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Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio)’s Tiger Global hedge fund cut its stake in SurveyMonkey (SVMK, Financial) parent for the second time since it went public in September, filings showed Tuesday.

The tech-focused firm was the largest shareholder of SVMK Inc. as it filed for its initial public offering, with 29.3% of shares. On June 27, it disposed of 4,862,267 shares, dropping its position by 26.36% to 12,584,284 shares.

Shares of the survey software company traded at an average price of $15.82 when Coleman sold, about 32% above their IPO price of $12. The stock has gained about 38% year to date, closing at $16.48 on Tuesday with a 0.24% rise for the day.

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Tiger had reduced the holding by 39.46% during the first quarter to 18,584,284 shares. The stock had an average trading price around $14 for the period.

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Tiger, founded by Coleman in 2001 after he left Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio)’s legendary Tiger Management, researches the fundamentals of its targeted industries and geographies. It buys the stocks it believes have the highest potential for returns, typically in the global internet, payments, software and consumer sectors.

The firm’s largest positions include names such as JD.com Inc. (JD, Financial), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, Financial) and Facebook Inc. (FB, Financial). It also owns an array of smaller-cap tech companies, such as Fitbit Inc. (FIT, Financial), Eventbrite Inc. (EB, Financial) and Cloudera Inc. (CLDR, Financial). Many of the celebrated tech companies to IPO in recent years count Tiger Global as an early investor.

SurveyMonkey reported $68.6 million in revenue in the first quarter, an increase of 17% from the previous year. Paying users simultaneously rose 10% to 670,862, with average per-user revenue increasing to 8% to $423 from $390 in the first quarter of 2018. More than 17 million users are active on the platform without paying.

The company also recorded a net loss of $17.8 million, or 14 cents per diluted share, versus $14.72 million, or 15 cents per diluted share, a year earlier. Its cash balance stood at $165.9 million, and debt totaled $216.9 million at the end of the March quarter.

In April, it acquired Usabilla, an online feedback data company, with the aim to drive revenue with an expansion in enterprise and international sales.

See Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio)’s portfolio here.

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