We have published an article titled Billionaire David Tepper’s 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential.In this article, we are going to take a look at where JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) stands against David Tepper’s other stock picks.
The S&P 500 has returned 12.29% over the past 12 months as of May 2, 2025. In the same period, hedge fund manager David Tepper and his team at Appaloosa Management LP managed to return 26.29%. The performance gap widens dramatically when you stretch to three years—Appaloosa’s return in that period is 84.79% against the S&P 500’s 11.02%.
Billionaire David Alan Tepper has always been an interesting character. Some, especially those who support the Carolina Panthers, see him as a villain. But National Football League (NFL) owners are often heavily scrutinized and critiqued. Panthers fans may not endorse the billionaire’s decision-making, but his net worth ($21.3 billion as of May 2025) clearly shows that he makes better investment decisions than most investors. And he’s done this for a long time because Appaloosa has posted an average annual return of more than 25% since it was founded 32 years ago.
READ ALSO: Billionaire Jim Simons’ RenTech’s 10 Small-Cap Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential and Billionaire Chase Coleman’s 10 Stocks with Huge Upside Potential.
But even within investment circles, Tepper may sometimes come across as unconventional. When Appaloosa’s 13F filing for Q4 2024 became public, it made for an interesting reading. Tepper had spent the quarter going all in on Chinese stocks. He raised his stake in several Chinese tech stocks to such a point that one of the companies accounts for about 16% of the hedge fund’s holdings.
The interesting – and perhaps unconventional – bit in Tepper’s bets is that they happened when a tariff war was (and still is) brewing between the US and China. When asked to comment on this reality, Tepper said: “I don’t care. You know I’m sitting here in a suit. My counter bet is I don’t care.” In other words, the billionaire hedge fund manager doesn’t care about tariffs.
But should he? Analysis shows that Trump’s tariffs impacted the tech stocks in the US as well as in China. For instance, Trump’s escalation of tariffs on Chinese imports to 145% by April 2025 led to a sharp initial drop in tech indexes in both countries. The S&P 500 Information Technology Index dropped by 9.76%, and the CSI Overseas China Internet Index pared by 18.94%. Between April 3 and May 2, 2025, the US tech index increased by 10.84%. In the same period, the Chinese tech index declined by 2.55%. One can therefore, conclude that the tariffs are hurting Chinese tech stocks more than US tech stocks.
This perspective is critical because, as noted earlier, Tepper’s equities portfolio is dominated by US and Chinese tech stocks. One Chinese tech giant accounts for about 16% of the portfolio. To an investor without the billionaire hedge fund manager’s experience and shrewdness, this reality is concerning.
But this particular scenario is what defines Tepper: he takes risks, which, judging by Appaloosa’s return profile, often pay off.
We reviewed Appaloosa Management LP’s SEC Q4 2024 13F filings to pick stocks for this list. Our focus excluded non-equity holdings such as options and ETFs. From the result, we obtained the average 12-month analyst price target for each stock as of May 5, 2025. We then focused only on stocks with an upside potential of at least 30% and then picked the top 10. This list is in ascending order.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
JD.com, Inc. (JD): Among Billionaire David Tepper’s Top Stock Picks
A wide and imposing view of a supply chain distribution center, illustrating the company’s technology capabilities.
Appaloosa Management Stake Value: $362,852,233
Upside Potential as of May 5: 47.29%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 78
JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) is one of China’s largest e-commerce companies and a direct competitor to Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) in the online retail market. The company operates as a supply chain-based technology and service provider. Its business model combines direct sales with a third-party marketplace. Like Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) accounts for a substantial share of billionaire David Tepper’s portfolio (5.60% as of Q4 2024). The company is Tepper’s third-largest position. More than 75 other institutional investors are drawn to the company because of several factors. Key among them is the direct sales model and stringent quality control measures.
On the operational front, JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) is actively expanding its global footprint. Reports in South Korea indicate that the company will soon enter the market. The e-commerce giant has set up logistics centers in Incheon and Icheon, Gyeonggi, and launched a service for global sellers. JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) now handles logistics for several US consumer brands, Korean beauty firms, and pet commerce companies. However, this international expansion comes amid growing geopolitical concerns. In the US, lawmakers are urging the SEC to delist Chinese companies, including JD.com (NASDAQ:JD). They cite alleged military links that they claim pose risks to US national security.
On April 28, 2025, Citi analysts adjusted their outlook on the stock. They reduced the price target to $51 from the previous $56 but maintained a Buy rating on the company’s shares. The analysts cited JD.com’s (NASDAQ:JD) push into the food delivery sector, which, they wrote, carries an air of uncertainty regarding its sustainability.
Overall JD ranks 3rd on our list of billionaire David Tepper’s stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of JD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than JD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
