By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund Tiger Global Management, known for making big bets on technology companies, slipped modestly in March, leaving it down 21 percent for the first three months of the year, an investor in the fund said.
The numbers put the New York-based firm, which manages roughly $6 billion in its hedge fund, among the year's worst performers, a rare misstep for the highly secretive firm. Overall the firm manages roughly $20 billion.
For 2015, Tiger Global had a gain of 6.8 percent gain, while most other firms had losses. A spokeswoman did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Tiger's top holdings of publicly traded stocks - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX). and JD.com Inc - are all nursing losses for the year.
And although many of Tiger Global's top holdings recovered ground in March, that was not enough to offset some of the heavy losses at the start of the year.
Two other stocks that regulatory filings show the firm owned at the end of the fourth quarter have had big losses for the current year-to-date. Software solutions company Tableau Software is down more than 50 percent and luxury home furnishings company Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc is off 45 percent.
Tiger Global has been making more concentrated bets in its hedge fund portfolio. Last year Scott Shleifer replaced Feroz Dewan, who left the firm, in running Tiger's public equity business.
Many hedge funds are still compiling their quarter-end numbers and investors are bracing for additional losses, on expectations that managers got too nervous when the market was tumbling and missed the recovery. Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds do not report their numbers publicly and investors are eager to hear how the big managers performed to get a sense of a trend.
Hound Partners LLC told investors it lost 1.9 percent in March and is now off 12.3 percent for the year. Part of the loss is related to the sharp drop in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX), a favorite with the hedge fund community.
Falcon Edge, which listed drug maker Allergan (NYSE:AGN_pa), energy company Cheniere and JD.com among its biggest stock holdings, said it lost 2.2 percent in March and is off 14.6 percent for the year.
But there is some good news.
Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global Investors gained 1.2 percent in March, shrinking its loss for the year to 8.3 percent.
Owl Creek Asset Management, whose biggest stock investment is Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), gained 6.1 percent, leaving its year-to-date loss at just 0.8 percent.