Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine and Whale Rock Piled Into This Little Known AI Stock

Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine and Whale Rock Piled Into This Little Known AI Stock

Habib Ur Rehman

Sun, August 23, 2026 at 11:35 AM GMT+3 3 min read

• TTMI -3.36%

Insider Monkey's investor database shows several prominent growth investors converging on a relatively obscure AI infrastructure name. Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital disclosed a 2.74 million-share position in TTM Technologies in Q2, worth about $512 million as of June 30. Alex Sacerdote's Whale Rock Capital increased its TTMI stake by about 20% during Q2 to 4.23 million shares, worth roughly $791 million at quarter-end, making TTMI its fourth-largest disclosed U.S. equity position.

TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, RF components and other advanced electronic systems.

AI Demand Is Already Showing Up in the Numbers

TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) is seeing AI demand translate into actual revenue growth. On August 5, the company said second-quarter sales reached a record $1 billion, up 37% YoY. Its Data Center and Networking business generated 40% of revenue and grew 91%, driven by continued AI infrastructure demand. Management expects the segment to account for 49% of third-quarter sales and more than double for full-year 2026.

Portogas D Ace/Shutterstock.com

Demand indicators remain strong as well. TTM reported a Q2 book-to-bill ratio of 1.49, suggesting orders are still running comfortably ahead of shipments.

TTMI closed August 21 at $110.54, down about 21% over five trading days and roughly half from its June peak of $223.83. The decline has erased a large part of the stock's earlier AI-driven rerating.

At that price, TTMI trades at roughly 23 times the current 2026 adjusted EPS consensus of $4.85. Current consensus calls for adjusted EPS of about $6.89 in 2027, which would put the stock at only around 16 times next year's earnings. On its face, that does not look particularly expensive for a company expected to grow earnings by more than 40% next year.

The risk to the thesis is a wider industry slowdown in AI infrastructure spending. Data Center and Networking is becoming an increasingly large part of TTM's business, so a pullback in hyperscaler spending would hit growth disproportionately. But of course, it doesn't look like things would move in that direction anytime soon, and management continues to expect Data Center and Networking revenue for the company to more than double in 2026.

The $1.1 billion acquisition of Epiq Solutions adds some execution and financing risk, but the balance-sheet concern also looks manageable. TTM expects net leverage to rise to about 2.3x at closing before declining to 1.5x-1.7x within 12 to 18 months, while Epiq is expected to improve adjusted EBITDA margins immediately and become accretive to non-GAAP EPS in 2028.

Short sellers aren't making an aggressive bet against the company either. As of July 31, roughly 2.42 million TTMI shares were sold short, representing just 2.32% of the float. Short interest had fallen sharply from 4.40 million shares in mid-June, suggesting bearish positioning remains relatively modest despite the stock's volatile run.

Hedge Funds Are Betting the Growth Continues

Insider Monkey's hedge fund database saw a 37% increase in the number of hedge funds holding the stock in Q2, rising to 89 from 65 in Q1. The recent pullback makes TTMI substantially more interesting, especially with earnings expected to keep scaling. But the stock is not cheap enough to ignore the possibility that current AI infrastructure growth represents a cyclical peak rather than a permanent new baseline. I would view the selloff as an opportunity to begin accumulating TTMI prudently rather than aggressively.

While we acknowledge the potential of TTMI as an investment, we believe certain other AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on thebest short-term AI stock.

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