Julian Robertson Says FANG Stocks Aren't Too Rich, the Market Is
Julian Robertson Says FANG Stocks Aren't Too Rich, the Market Is
(Bloomberg) -- Legendary hedge fund investor Julian Robertson said Facebook Inc. and other FANG stocks are inexpensive but the overall market isn’t.
“Right now the Apples, the Facebooks and the Googles are priced cheaper than they would have ever been in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” Robertson, 85, said Tuesday at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York.
While he’s a long-term investor in Facebook Inc., he finds Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc. enticing. “Netflix is tempting to me because it’s run by really good people and I love it too,” said Robertson, who founded New York-based Tiger Management in 1980 and turned it into one of the industry’s largest hedge funds. “Not liking Netflix is like saying you hate Santa Claus.”
Stock market valuations are a different picture. “The market as a whole is quite high on a historic basis,” he said. “Interest rates are so low that there is no real competition for money other than art and real estate. When rates do start to go up and bonds become more attractive to investors it will affect the markets.”
Robertson also said he expects Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will be asked to remain in her post “for a while.” He wasn’t more specific. Her term expires in February.
Robertson, who produced average annual returns of more than 30 percent at Tiger Management, now manages his own fortune and focuses on backing startup hedge fund managers.
His firm has also spawned a plethora of new funds. Managers who once worked under Robertson and went on to start their own hedge funds have been dubbed “Tiger cubs.” They include some of today’s most prominent names such as Viking Global Investors’ Andreas Halvorsen and Maverick Capital’s Lee Ainslie.
--With assistance from Joshua Fineman
To contact the reporters on this story: Hema Parmar in New York at hparmar6@bloomberg.net, Sabrina Willmer in Boston at swillmer2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella, Josh Friedman