Hedge funds are cozying up to Uber but snubbing Lyft

Graham Rapier

Aug 15, 2019, 20:49 IST

Heidi Gutman/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Kenneth C. Griffin, Citadel Founder and Chief Executive Officer, at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference July 18th in NYC

Big name hedge funds bought up big Uber stakes during or shortly after the company's initial public offering in May, regulatory filings disclosed this week show.
Lyft, meanwhile, saw many managers trim their stakes.
Both stocks have sank considerably during their brief time on public exchanges.
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Some of the world's largest hedge funds snapped up shares of Uber in the second-quarter following the ride-hailing giant's initial public offering.

But investment managers weren't feeling as optimistic about the company's biggest competitor, Lyft, in the second quarter, regulatory filings show.

Hedge funds are required to disclose their stakes in public companies four times a year, following the close of each quarter. Because Lyft went public at the very end of the first quarter, its likely that the funds interested in the stock bought in then, and already disclosed the holdings in April.

Still, no positions in Lyft were drastically increased in the second quarter by big league managers while Uber saw plenty of activity.

Viking Global Investors, a Connecticut-based fund with roughly $34 billion in assets under management, was one of the largest buyers in the quarter. The fund bought 13.37 million shares of Uber worth about $620 million, according to regulatory filings. It owns no shares of Lyft.

Citadel Advisers, the $30 billion Chicago-based fund managed by Ken Griffin, also bought 7.08 million shares of Uber, worth $215.7 million at today's prices, according to regulatory filings. The fund also owns about 3.2 million shares of Lyft, worth roughly $171 million at Thursday's prices.Tiger Global Management got in too. The Julian Robertson founded fund snapped up 6.6 million shares of Uber worth $309 million in the second quarter, filings show.

Other funds bought up plenty of smaller stakes. Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquense Family Office bought 2.69 million shares of Uber, worth $124.8 million, its filings show, while D.E. Shaw bought 512,587 shares of Uber worth $17.3 million at today's prices, according to its Form 13F filed Wednesday. The fund also owns 1.7 million shares of Lyft, worth about $90 million.

Lyft, however, saw many funds trim their positions as the stock fell about 30% from its initial trading prices.

Eminence Capital, a smaller fund with roughly $8 billion under management, meanwhile, exited its Lyft position, selling 830,000 shares - worth $in the second quarter. Overall, 138 funds closed or reduced their Lyft positions in the quarter, while 193 added to or created new stakes in the company, According to Whale Wisdom.

In total, hedge funds trimmed their shares of Lyft by about 11%.