Coatue Management founder and billionaire Philippe Laffont has cemented himself as a highly successful fund manager. In recent years, Laffont attracted attention for making big bets on electric vehicle (EV) companies like Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) and Lucid (NASDAQ:LCID). After completely selling out of LCID during Q4, the fund manager now has a new EV company in his spotlight.
During the fourth quarter, Laffont disclosed a 1.41 million share stake in Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) stock. Interestingly enough, the fund manager sold out of his entire 887,794 share stake during Q3 only to buy it back and more during the following quarter. The Chinese EV company is now his 42nd largest 13F holding with a 0.32% portfolio allocation.
Philippe Laffont Discloses Stake in LI Stock
Out of the trio of Chinese EV makers, which also includes Nio (NYSE:NIO) and XPeng (NYSE:XPEV), Li Auto led the way with its January monthly deliveries of 15,141 vehicles, up by 23.4% year-over-year. In comparison, Nio had 8,506 deliveries, while XPeng had 5,218. Since its inception, Li Auto has now delivered a total of 272,475 vehicles.
“We ranked first in both China’s full-size and large SUV markets for the full year of 2022, thanks to the outstanding sales performance of all three models we have brought to the market: Li L9, Li L8, and Li ONE,” said CEO and founder Xiang Li. “Fulfilling family users’ needs in the RMB300,000 to RMB500,000 price segment, our vehicles have emerged among the top choices of premium SUVs for families.”
Earlier this month, the company launched its Li L7 family SUV. The vehicle will be available in three trims, with prices ranging from RMB319,800 to RMB379,800. Deliveries for the vehicles will begin next month and in April, depending on the trim. Li Auto seems to be steadily chugging along. As of January, it had 296 retail stores in 123 cities and 320 servicing and paint shops in 222 cities.
Wall Street analysts seem to be in favor of the company as well. LI currently has an average price target of $34.60, implying over 35% upside from current prices. The last price target update was from Citigroup, which raised its price target to $51.50 from $48.
On the date of publication, Eddie Pan did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
