Netflix, dumped by Meta Tiger Global, shut down other hedge fund technology sales

Tiger Global Management, Winslow Capital Management, and Scopus Asset Management were among the funds that sold all of their shares in streaming company Netflix Inc. before reporting first losses to customers in more than a decade in March, according to a security filing released Monday.

The move from Netflix, whose stock price has fallen 69% to date this year, comes after fund managers rallied after the coronavirus epidemic began in 2020 and re-evaluated the major technology companies that helped the benchmark S&P 500 reach record highs.

The S&P 500 is down about 16% for the year so far, while the Russell 1000 Growth Index, which focuses more on technology companies, is down about 25% over the same period.

Hedge fund Lite Street sold all 149,025 shares of its Facebook-parent meta platform Inc. and 7,960 shares to Netflix. It nearly halved the Google-Parent Alphabet Inc. partnership and reduced its exposure to Amazon.com Inc., down 10% for the quarter ended March, according to the filing.

Hitchwood Capital Management LP, meanwhile, has sold 390,000 shares of Meta, while Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital has reduced its stake in Amazon by 22% to 198,433 shares and Melvin Capital has sold 850,000 of its shares.

Securities filing, also known as 13-Fs, is one of the few public ways for hedge funds and other institutional investors to view what they hold in their portfolios, although they do not disclose the current position.

Despite the widespread move away from technology, some hedge funds have added to their position in selected companies. Farrell Capital Management Meter added 698,195 shares, whose shares have fallen 40.5% for the year so far.

Kotu Management, meanwhile, increased its number of shares of Meta Platform Inc. by 18.2% in the first quarter, to 2,797,896. It bought more shares on Netflix, ending March with 1,438,956 shares, or 54.5% more than in December.