U.S. hedge funds unload Alibaba shares in Q4 2014

(Reuters) - Several of the biggest hedge fund managers slashed or dissolved their stake in China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd at the end of last year, taking a prescient bet ahead of the company's surprise revenue miss last quarter that sent shares plunging in late January.

Among the institutional investors that dissolved their stake were Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management and Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners LLC, according to U.S. regulatory filings released late Friday and Tuesday. Tiger Management, Moore Capital Management and Viking Global Investors LP decreased their stakes from the prior quarter, according to the filings.

Dan Loeb's Third Point and John Paulson's Paulson & Co bucked the trend, increasing their stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant, while Tiger Global Management was also an anomaly, jumping in and taking a 5.8 million-share stake.

Soros Fund Management Group, the hedge fund firm founded by billionaire George Soros, kept its stake unchanged at 4.4 million shares.

The changes come just months after the hedge fund managers piled into Alibaba following its record $25 billion initial public offering in September. The red hot IPO attracted big purchases from investors eager to gain exposure to a company often referred to as the "Amazon of China."

The shares soared to a high of $120 in November, but have tumbled since then, dropping about 27.6 percent to their close of $86.85 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Alibaba shares, which opened at $92.70 at their market debut on Sept. 19, took a sharp drop last month after the company reported lower-than-expected revenues for the third quarter.

Among those who unloaded shares from their previous positions: Tiger Management, led by Julian Robertson, decreased its position by 53 percent to 571,183 shares at the end of last year, from 1.2 million shares in the prior quarter. Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management decreased its stake by 91 percent to 138,345 shares from 1.52 million; and Viking Global Investors LP decreased its stake by 67.5 percent to 3.7 million shares from 11.4 million shares.

Third Point increased its stake by 38.9 percent to 10 million shares at the end of December, from 7.2 million shares at the end of September, while Paulson nudged up its stake by 1.2 percent to 1.93 million shares from 1.9 million shares.

Even as appetite sours among several of the biggest investors, some remain optimistic about the long-term potential of the e-commerce giant. Mark Yusko, head of the $4 billion Morgan Creek Capital Management, told Reuters in January that he sees Alibaba as a "dominant franchise," able to capitalize on China's growing consumer market.

U.S. regulators require large investors to disclose their stock holdings every quarter, providing a window into the strategies of some of the biggest hedge fund managers for buying and selling stocks.

    The disclosures known as 13F filings, which came out on Friday and Tuesday, show manager holdings as of the end of the fourth quarter.

GrubHub (GRUB) : insiders cashing out

Most of the 10 million shares being offered are coming from insiders, particularly private-equity funds that backed Seamless, the New York-based food-ordering service that merged with GrubHub a year ago.

Insiders are selling 8.8 million shares. Chicago-based GrubHub itself is selling 1.25 million shares worth about $50 million. GrubHub's stock fell nearly 10 percent to about $39 on the announcement of a secondary offering.

The stock had been riding a wave of optimism since GrubHub's strong second-quarter earnings report July 23, rising 28 percent to more than $40 a share.

STRONG IPO PERFORMANCE

GrubHub, an online platform for restaurant takeout, has had one of Chicago's strongest IPO performances. It went public April 4 at $26 per share and climbed to $43.29 the first day. Like Deerfield-based Textura Corp., which makes construction software, GrubHub took advantage of the strong showing to quickly do a secondary offering.

The biggest sellers of GrubHub's stock are Warburg Pincus Private Equity and Spectrum Equity, each selling 1.9 million shares worth about $77 million. That works out to one-fourth of Spectrum's holdings and one-third of Warburg's stake.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early backer of GrubHub, is selling 1.2 million shares, or 43 percent of its shares. Goldman Sachs is selling 21 percent of its stock, or 1.3 million shares. Chicago-based Origin Ventures, GrubHub's first venture backer, is selling 609,802 shares, or 15 percent of its holdings.

Jonathan Zabusky, GrubHub's president and former CEO of Seamless, is selling 298,801, or 39 percent of his holdings. GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney is selling 183,089, or 9 percent of his stake. Mike Evans, former chief operating officer, isn't selling any of his 2.1 million shares.

These shareholders may sell more if underwriters exercise an overallotment provision.

Andrew Mason unloads more than half of Groupon (GRPN) stake

Ticker: GRPN

Groupon Inc. co-founder Andrew Mason sold more than half his stock in the company since being forced out as CEO nearly a year ago.

Mr. Mason holds 18 million shares of Groupon common stock, down from 45.6 million shares at the end of 2012, according to securities documents disclosed today. Mr. Mason now owns about 3 percent of Groupon's stock, compared with 7 percent a year ago. His remaining holdings are worth $200 million at current prices. Groupon's stock price more than doubled since Mr. Mason departed Feb. 28.

Mr. Mason, who has moved the San Francisco area, still holds 999,984 shares of Class B stock that have special voting rights. Class B stock grants shareholders 150 votes per share, versus one per share for common stock.

Co-founders Eric Lefkofsky, who replaced Mr. Mason as Groupon CEO, and Brad Keywell, also hold Class B shares. Collectively, Messrs. Mason, Lefkofsky and Keywell have control over 36 percent of Groupon voting rights. When Mr. Mason left the company, he was no longer bound by restrictions that govern when insiders can sell stock.

Mr. Mason isn't the only Groupon insider who sold shares as the stock price recovered (although it still hasn't returned to its $20 IPO price). His co-founders also have been selling, though not as much.

Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg to sell 70 million shares

Facebook (FB) stock fell Thursday after the company said in a regulatory filing that CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to sell more than 40 million shares as part of the company's first follow-on stock offering, which will total about $4 billion.

Facebook stock was down 2.4% in midday trading in the stock market today. The stock fell as much as 5.2% in heavy pre-market trading Thursday, according to the Nasdaq exchange.

Zuckerberg plans to buy 60 million Class B shares as part of a longstanding option, and 41.4 million of those shares will immediately convert to Class A shares and be sold, according to the filing.

At Thursday's midday price of 54.16, Zuckerberg would get about $2.24 billion, which the company he'll mostly use to pay taxes on the 60 million share option.

The action is part of a secondary stock offering in which the company will sell 27 million shares. Shareholders, including Zuckerberg, will sell about 43 million shares.

The follow-on offering is the company's first since its May 2012 initial public offering, which raised about $16 billion.

The new sale will knock Zuckerberg's holdings to 56.1% of the company's voting power, down from 58.8%, according to Facebook.

The approximately $1.46 billion that the company will raise in the offering will be used for general working capital, says Facebook.

FB says Zuckerberg, directors won't sell shares

Facebook (FB) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and two company directors, Marc Andreessen and Donald Graham, do not plan to sell any company shares following the expiration of a lockup period, the social networking giant said in a regulatory filing late Tuesday. 

Zuckerberg, who is also the company's co-founder, "has no intention to conduct any sale transaction in our securities for at least 12 months," Facebook said. Shares of Facebook rose nearly 2% in after-hours trading, after hitting a new low in regular trading. Facebook shares have been weighed down by the coming lockup expirations for more than 1.3 billion shares before the end of the year. A big wave of roughly 1.22 billion is expected to hit Nov. 14.