It’s been a challenging investing landscape over the last year, to say the least. From Sept. 30, 2019 through Feb. 19, 2020, the S&P 500 gained 14%. Then the Coronavirus pandemic swept in like a giant Black Swan. The market swooned 34% over the next month, bottoming on March 23. Despite the pandemic, stocks then marched 50% higher through Q3 2020’s end. Many funds took advantage of the volatility and posted big returns. Here are the top performing hedge funds, based on long-only portfolio performance, over the last year.
Top performing hedge funds over the last year, based on long-only 13F filings, through Q3’s end. Reflects funds with over $1B in 13F assets.
| Hedge Fund | # Holdings | Top Holding | 13F MV $Bil | Qtr Turnover | % Holdings in Top 10 | 1-YR Perf Eq Wt | QoQ Perf Eq Wt | 3 Yr Perf Annualized |
| ABDIEL CAPITAL ADVISORS, LP | 10 | FSLY | 3.18 | 20.00% | 100.00% | 123.96% | 17.00% | 68.86% |
| BRILLIANCE ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD | 13 | BABA | 1.56 | 76.92% | 99.06% | 97.85% | 8.48% | 25.63% |
| SCGE MANAGEMENT, L.P. | 31 | SHOP | 6.41 | 29.03% | 70.57% | 96.37% | 10.14% | 40.20% |
| ARK INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC | 219 | TSLA | 16.86 | 21.46% | 43.17% | 89.40% | 14.57% | 33.99% |
| MATRIX CAPITAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY, LP | 29 | NFLX | 7.52 | 34.48% | 69.99% | 88.27% | 12.17% | 34.80% |
| COATUE MANAGEMENT LLC | 73 | PYPL | 19.05 | 86.30% | 51.01% | 86.49% | 14.77% | 31.78% |
| DRAGONEER INVESTMENT GROUP, LLC | 33 | SNOW | 4.45 | 48.48% | 79.08% | 82.84% | 9.13% | 29.55% |
| WHALE ROCK CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC | 48 | AMZN | 15.11 | 47.92% | 40.08% | 82.73% | 7.28% | 38.45% |
| TIGER GLOBAL MANAGEMENT LLC | 90 | JD | 35.53 | 25.56% | 54.65% | 80.54% | 12.04% | 31.58% |
| CASDIN CAPITAL, LLC | 45 | NVTA | 2.23 | 20.00% | 63.09% | 76.75% | 33.00% | 27.82% |
Abdiel Capital was #1 among the top performing hedge funds over the last year.
Not big on diversification, Abdiel Capital runs a long portfolio that typically has all of 10 positions. This concentrated portfolio has showed stunning performance over the last several years. Co-managed by Colin Moran and Geoff Gentile, Abdiel led all hedge funds with a 123.96% return for the year ending Sept. 30, 2020. Zoom (ZM), Appian (APPN) and Fastly (FSLY) helped power the fund’s gains.
Hong Kong based Brilliance Asset Management may be obscure, but the $4.51B hedge fund has had a great 12 months. Led by positions in Alibaba (BABA) and TAL Education (TAL), the fund’s top 20 long holdings, equal-weighted, returned 97.85% through Q3’s close.
Menlo Park-based SCGE Management has shown big 12 month performance. Big winners for the fund inclued: Pinduoduo Inc.(PDD), Zoom (ZM), Shopify (SHOP) and ServiceNow (NOW). SCGE’s managing partners are Patrick Fu and Jeffrey Wang.
Ark Investment Management, run by Catherine Wood, reported $16.85B in managed 13F securities as of Q3’s end. 8.27% of the fund’s long holdings was in Tesla (TSLA). Other major positions include Invitae Corp (NVTA) and Square Inc. (SQ). Ark returned 89.4% over the year ending Sept. 30.
Three “Tiger Cubs” are among the top ten hedge funds over the 12 months ending Sept. 30.
Waltham, MA-based Matrix Capital is one of three “Tiger Cubs” among the top ten hedge funds over the last year. Matrix is Managed by co-founder David E. Goel. An equal-weight portfolio of the fund’s top 20 positions, rebalanced quarterly, has returned 25.14% annually over the last five years. That’s nearly twice the S&P 500’s return. Over the last year, Goel’s fund has ridden positions in DocuSign (DOCU), Netflix (NFLX) and TransDigm (TDG) to an 88.27% return.
“Tiger Cub” Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management has enjoyed a sterling 12 months. Coatue’s long portfolio returned 86.49%, edging out Tiger Global which showed an 80.54% return. Chase Coleman had a big winner with solar company Sunrun (RUN).
Disclaimer:
This investment blog (the “Blog”) is created and authored by Mark W. Gaffney (the “Content Creator”). The Blog is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only (collectively, the “Blog Service”). The information in the Blog constitutes the Content Creator’s own opinions. None of the information contained in the Blog constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. You understand that the Content Creator is not advising, and will not advise you personally concerning the nature, potential, value or suitability of any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, investment strategy or other matter. To the extent any of the information contained in the Blog may be deemed to be investment advice, such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person.
From time to time, the Content Creator or its affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog. The Content Creator or affiliates may trade for their own account(s) based on the information presented, and may also take positions inconsistent with the views expressed in its messages on the Blog.
The Content Creator may hold licenses with FINRA, the SEC or states securities authorities. These licenses may not be disclosed by the content creator in the Blog.
Investing in the investments discussed in the Blog may be risky and speculative. The companies may have limited operating histories, little available public information. The stocks discussed may be volatile and illiquid. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital not required for other purposes, such as retirement savings, student loans, mortgages or education.
