Maverick Capital increases bets on Carvana, Uber and Snowflake in the first quarter

Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital bolstered its positions last quarter in a number of stocks that have been hit hard, including Carvana , Uber and Snowflake . The hedge fund added to its bet on Uber by 15% to a stake worth $133 million at the end of March, according to a regulatory filing. The ride-hailing company, Maverick’s eighth-largest holding, has fallen more than 40% this year. Maverick also increased its Carvana position by a third to more than $75 million at the end of the first quarter, the filing showed. It Snowflake stake increased to nearly $44 million. The duo has sold off drastically this year — with Carvana down more than 80% and Snowflake off by 58%. Ainslie founded Maverick in 1993 after working under Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. The so-called Tiger Cub is a value investor known for his stakes in technology. Maverick, like other big tech-focused hedge funds such as Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global and Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter, could have suffered steep losses last quarter, as there was virtually nowhere to hide in the technology sector. Tech, especially unprofitable firms and richly valued software names, has been hit the hardest lately in the face of rising rates. Those sharp declines in tech have pushed the Nasdaq Composite down 24% year to date and off nearly 27% from its all-time high. South Korean e-commerce company Coupang remained Maverick’s biggest holding at the end of March. The stock was down 56% this year. Megacap tech names were prominent in Maverick’s top holdings, including Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Meta Platforms . Even with much stronger fundamentals, these big tech names also felt the pain from this year’s market correction, all down double digits in 2022.