Eleven months into 2025, $55 billion hedge fund Viking Global sits in an underwhelming position.
The long-running Tiger Cub — a nickname for the group of firms connected to the late Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management — is up just 5.8% through November in its flagship stock-picking hedge fund after a 0.5% gain last month, a person close to the manager told Business Insider.
This trails the returns of the overall S&P 500, which was up more than 16% through the same stretch, as well as many of the firm’s main rivals.
Fellow Tiger Cubs Coatue, Maverick, and D1 have all outperformed Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global through the same stretch. Coatue is up more than 13% through November, a person familiar with the firm told Business Insider. Lee Ainslie’s Maverick was up over 23% through November 21, according to HSBC’s Hedge Weekly report. And Dan Sundheim’s D1 has returned 28% through November in the firm’s public equities book, an individual close to the manager told Business Insider.
The managers mentioned declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
For Viking, this run of performance coincides with the firm’s first calendar year without Ning Jin, the former chief investment officer of the manager.
Jin was with Viking for 17 years and was the sole CIO of the firm in 2019 before departing in August of last year. He launched his own firm, Avantyr Capital, earlier this quarter with $1.5 billion.
Viking has become somewhat of an incubator for the industry’s next generation, as several former executives for the firm have gone on to start their own funds, with Sundheim being the biggest of the Viking spin-offs.
The firm’s current CIO is Justin Walsh, who first joined Viking as an intern in 2010. He started full-time at the manager in 2011 and has steadily climbed the ranks since.
At a conference last summer, Walsh spoke about the market risks associated with the growth of large multistrategy hedge funds like Citadel and Millennium, as well as his favorite luxury stock, Cartier-owner Richemont. Walsh was the portfolio manager for industrials and consumer stocks before becoming CIO after Jin’s departure.
Viking’s portfolio and investment style differ somewhat from those of its tech-heavy Tiger Cub peers. The manager is known for taking a more diversified approach, with a significant focus on its short book, to hedge market risk.
In 2022, that paid off for the long-running firm: Viking was down 2.5% that year in its public equities portfolio, while funds like Coatue and Tiger Global suffered much heavier losses.
But that means the firm can miss out on big gains when the market is powered by a small subset of companies. According to regulatory filings, the manager’s biggest holdings, as of the end of the third quarter, are four financial services companies: PNC, JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, and Capital One.
Within Viking’s top 10 holdings, only Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor would be considered a part of the AI trade that has fueled much of the overall market’s gains in 2025.
