Jericho Capital Asset Management posted its largest gains in the hedge fund firm’s 16-year history.
The long-short technology, media, and telecom firm’s flagship fund was up 59.5 percent net in 2024 and the more concentrated Jericho Capital Special Opportunities fund surged 120.6 percent, according to an investor.
This makes the hedge fund firm one of the top performers last year. And unlike a number of other TMT funds that are still below their high-water marks, Jericho came back to break even early last year. Jericho declined to comment.
Josh Resnick founded Jericho in 2009. The firm, which currently manages more than $3 billion, focuses on tech, media and entertainment, and telecom.
Jericho was up 20.2 percent in 2023 after losing 23 percent in 2022. Its two largest U.S.-listed longs accounted for more than 21 percent of assets at the end of the third quarter, according to its most recent quarterly regulatory filing.
Last year, the hedge fund firm’s shorts were flat when stocks in general surged, says an investor, though they had been up for most of the year. At the same time, shares of all of the largest longs were up sharply for 2024.
In the first quarter, the firm established a new stake of 613,000 shares of Netflix, which immediately became the largest long. It sold 213,000 shares the following quarter but then bought back a little more than that in the third quarter. At the end of September, Netflix accounted for more than 10 percent of the U.S. stock portfolio, regaining its status as the firm’s largest long.
It is not known what price Jericho paid for the shares. In 2024, shares of Netflix jumped more than 80 percent. The stock is already up a further 7.5 percent this year, and on Tuesday the company announced it is increasing its subscription prices.
In first-quarter 2024, Jericho nearly tripled its stake in AppLovin Corp., which became the second-largest long and now makes up more than 10 percent of U.S. long assets. The company produces software that helps market, monetize, and analyze apps. The stock quadrupled in the second half of last year alone.
Jericho’s third-largest long at the end of the third quarter was Nvidia, whose stock surged more than 170 percent last year. The shares account for nearly 8 percent of the total U.S. long portfolio.
The fourth-largest long was Meta Platforms. However, the firm has sold more than half the shares it held at the end of September 2023.
