The Fed met today—and they made no change to policy. As we all know, their words will be parsed endlessly. But the fact is, the Fed, at this point, is a side show. It’s two other central banks (BOJ and ECB), and likely policy makers in China that will dictate what stocks do, what commodities do and what the global economy does for the next year (or few).
With that, the real event is tomorrow night. The Bank of Japan will decide on their next move. And the BOJ holds many, if not all of the cards for the U.S. stock market and the global economy. Today we’re going to talk about why that’s the case.
As we said yesterday, the consensus view is that the BOJ will do nothing this week. That sets up for a surprise, which Japanese policymakers like and want. It gives their policy actions more potency.
We talked yesterday about the role central banks have played in the long and slow global recovery. To put it simply, central banks have manufactured the global economic recovery. Without the intervention, there would have been a global economic collapse and blood in the streets, still. It was all led by the Fed. They slashed interest rates to zero. They rolled out the unprecedented bond buying program that pinned down mortgage rates (putting a bottom in the housing market), and helped to recapitalize the big banks that were drowning in defaulted debt, withering deposits and an evaporation of loan demand. They opened up currency swap lines (access to U.S. dollars) with global central banks so that those central banks could fend off collapse in their respective banking sectors.
Most importantly, with all of the intervention, and after spending and committing trillions of dollars in guarantees, backstops and bailouts, the Fed clearly communicated to the public, by their actions, that they would not let another shock event destabilize the world economy. Europe was next to step up, to do the same.
When the weak members of the European Monetary Union were spiraling toward default, which would have destroyed the euro and Europe all together, the leading euro zone nations stepped in with a bailout package.
Still, a year later, bigger trouble was brewing, as big countries like Italy and Spain were on the precipice of default. That’s when the European Central Bank (ECB) went “all–in”, effectively guaranteeing the debt of Italy and Spain by saying they would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro (and the euro zone).
Those were the magic words: “whatever it takes.”
That statement meant that the central bank would buy the debt of those countries, if need be, to keep them solvent, for as much and as long as needed…”whatever it takes.” That was the line in the sand. If you bought European stocks that day, you’ve doubled your money will little–to–no pain.
Similarly, Japan read from Draghi’s script a few months ago (late September of 2015) when global stocks were falling sharply and threatening to destabilize the world again. Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was in New York, and in a prepared speech, said they would do “whatever it takes” to return Japan to robust sustainable growth. Once again, the magic words put a bottom in global stocks and led to a sharp rebound.
“Whatever it takes” means, if need be, they print more money, they will support government debt markets, they will outright buy stocks, they will devalue currencies, they will do whatever it takes to promote growth and to prevent a shock that would derail the global economy. Why? Because they know the alternative scenario/the negative scenario is catastrophic.
Not surprisingly, in the past six days, with global stocks in turmoil, Draghi stepped in again. This time, he conjured up some new magic words. He said there are no limits to what the ECB can buy (as part of their QE program). Guess who followed his lead? The head of the BOJ sat in front of a camera the next day and said the exact same thing. This tells me stocks are fair game. We already know that’s the case for the BOJ. They are already outright buying stocks. But it also tells me commodities are fair game. And high yield corporate debt. Anything that is threatening to destabilize global markets and threatening to knock the global economic recovery off path—it’s fair game for the ECB and BOJ to put a floor under (i.e. by buying up assets with freshly printed currency).
What does it all mean? It means the ECB and the BOJ are now at the wheel. They relieved pressure from the Fed, allowing the Fed to begin the path of removing the emergency policies (albeit very slowly) of the past nine years. The Fed only makes this move because they believe the U.S. economy is robust enough to handle it. And, more importantly, they only start this path because they know that two other major central banks in the world will continue to provide fuel for the global economy and defend against shocks through their aggressive policies.
Now, within this monetary policy dominated world, where everyone is all–in, the policy actions have simply kept the global economy alive and breathing, they have done nothing to address the major structural problems the world is enduring: Massive debt and slow–to–no growth.
What’s the solution? There hasn’t been one. Until Japan unveiled their massive stimulus program in 2013. The potential solution: A massive devaluation of the Japanese yen.
Japan, unlike many other major central banks (including the Fed), has all of the right ingredients to achieve its inflation goal via the printing press—it has the biggest debt load in the world (which can be inflated away by yen printing), it has persistent deflation (which can be reversed by printing), and it has decades of economic stagnation (which can be reversed with hyper easy money and improvements in the global economy).
In short, they can do all of the things that other powerful central banks/economies can’t do—and it can result in a huge benefit not just in Japan but for fueling a recovery in the global economy (as capital pours out of Japan). In a world with few antidotes to the structural economic problems, this is a potential solution for everyone. So perhaps the most important ingredient for a successful campaign in Japan°they have the full support/hope/wishes of the major global economic powers (US, Europe, UK).
The Bank of Japan is targeting to run their aggressive QE program at full tilt until they can produce a target of 2% inflation in their economy. Their latest inflation data is closer to zero than 1% (still very far from 2%). So they still have a lot of work to do. They completed two years of their big, bold plan—and two years was the timeline they projected to achieve their goal. Clearly, they haven’t met the inflation goal. And they have since, as we’ve said, committed to do whatever it takes to do it, and for as long as it takes. With that, we expect more expansion to their QE program (possibly this week). And, importantly, a huge part of their success is (and will be) dependent upon higher Japanese stocks, and a weaker yen. They have explicitly said so. It’s part of their game plan.
Japan’s Prime Minister Abe was elected on his aggressive plan to end deflation. That was, and is, his priority. He hand-selected the Bank of Japan governor to carry out his plan.
Here’s the quick and dirty summary: With free–falling oil and depressed commodity prices threatening widespread defaults across the energy sector, which would soon be followed by sovereign debt defaults from oil producing nations (like Russia), don’t be surprised if we see the BOJ (and maybe the ECB) step in and gobble up dirt cheap commodities as a policy initiative. It would put a floor under stocks, commodities, and promote stability and growth.
At Billionaire’s Portfolio we study the buying patterns of the world’s greatest billionaire investors and hedge funds. So when the greatest billionaire investors in the world are scooping up beaten down stakes in energy companies, we pay close attention.
We know two things about the best billionaire investors in the world: 1) they have made billions throughout their careers buying when everyone else is selling, and 2) they have a knack for picking the winners, the stocks and sectors, and marking the bottom when they enter.
Let’s look at the investments the world’s best billionaire investors have been bottom fishing and/or adding to their positions into the sharp declines:
1) Phillips 66 PSX +1.30% (PSX) – Buffett revealed last September he had taken a $4.5 billon position in the energy stock Phillips 66. This is a typical Buffett stock. It sells for just 9 times earnings, a huge discount to the S&P 500’s P/E of 21, and the stock pays nearly 3% in a dividend. Furthermore, the company has a pristine balance sheet, with very little debt – a classic Buffett stock, cheap and safe. Buffett has added another $700 million to this stock just in the past two weeks. He’s the largest shareholder.
2) Williams Companies (WMB) and Pioneer Natural Resources PXD +5.31% (PXD) – Billionaire Stephen Mandel, of the hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, more than doubled his stake in Williams over the past month. Mandel’s Lone Pine now owns 5.6% of Williams or almost 42 million shares. This is up from 17.6 million shares a quarter ago. Mandel and Lone Pine also initiated a brand new position in Pioneer Natural Resources according to their most recent investor letter. Billionaire Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group owns $450 million worth of PXD, his fourth largest position.
3) Cheniere Energy (LNG) – Carl Icahn also initiated a $1.3 billion position in energy stock LNG in August of last year, taking an 8% ownership in the company. Cheniere is on track to become the first U.S. company able to export liquefied natural gas. This makes LNG a classic “wide moat” (no competition) stock. Icahn has already secured two board seats on Cheniere’s board. Icahn’s “board seat effect” has proven to be a huge predictor of success for the legendary activist. According to an essay Icahn penned last year, when he gets a board seat in a company, his stock returns averages 27.5%. Since his initial stake in August, Icahn has added to his stake several times into the end of the year. He now owns 13.8% of LNG — the largest shareholder. And Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group just added another 15 million shares this month to his already enormous stake in LNG. He now owns 15% of the company.
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The legendary billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, lost 12.3% in 2015. That was his worst year since 2008.
Meanwhile, the average hedge fund lost 3%. The average mutual fund lost 2.7%. And stocks broadly finished the year down too (before dividends), for the first time since 2008. Even most of the biggest and best known professional investors had a bad 2015. Still, one of the lesser known, but one of the best in the world, defied the gravity of stocks and posted an 8.3% gain for the year.
It was billionaire Andreas Halvorsen. He runs Viking Global, the ninth largest hedge fund in the world at $31 billion in assets under management.
Halvorsen started his fund in 1999, after training under the legendary billionaire investor Julian Robertson. He’s a former Norwegian Navy Seal and a Stanford MBA.
Halvorsen extracted more than $2.5 billion from the markets in 2015, as a stock investor, in one of the more difficult stock picking environments in a long time. And last year was not an anomaly. Viking has one of the best track records of any hedge fund over the past 16 years. Since inception in 1999, the fund has returned 23% annualized (before fees) vs. a 4% annualized return for the S&P 500.
Halvorsen’s stock picking abilities have produced returns at a factor of 3.5 times better than Buffett’s since he’s been at the helm of Viking. And he’s done it with much smaller drawdowns. In fact, Viking has only had two losing years since 1999. The fund lost 0.9% in 2003 and lost just 0.9% in 2008, a year when almost all stock investors were crushed. Buffett lost 31.5% that year.
The following are Viking’s top positions: Allergan (AGN), Walgreen’s (WBA), Google/Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Broadcom (BRCM).
In addition, in Halvorsen’s most recent investor letter, he said his fund had doubled down (added more) on a very controversial stock in their portfolio. At Billionaire’s Portfolio we curate a portfolio of the best stock picks of the world’s best billionaire investors – our subscribers follow along. To find out what stock Viking Global is adding to after a big decline, subscribe today.
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At Billionaire’s Portfolio we study the buying patterns of the world’s greatest billionaire investors and hedge funds. So when two of greatest billionaire investors in the world, Carl Icahn and Warren Buffett, are adding more to their large, beaten down stakes in energy companies, we pay close attention.
We know two things about Buffett and Icahn: 1) they have made billions throughout their careers buying when everyone else is selling, and 2) they have a knack for picking the winners, the stocks and sectors, and marking the bottom when they enter.
Their respective records are especially remarkable in times when widespread fear and doubt is in the air. For example, Icahn marked the bottom in technology stocks in the fall of 2012 with his 10% position in Netflix. He made $2 billion in profits on the trade, a nearly 1,000% return. Buffett marked the bottom in bank stocks in the fall of 2011 when he initiated a $5 billion position in Bank of America. That investment has almost tripled in price since, producing nearly $10 billion in open profits for Buffett.
Now, it’s typical in market environments like this to hear from experts that warn against picking tops and bottoms. But contrary to the Wall Street adages against market timing, the two best investors of all-time have amassed two of the largest personal fortunes in the world by (as Buffett says) “being greedy while others are fearful.” And they are using the new lows in oil and energy markets to add more to their stakes. Historically, that tends to be a profitable signal. There is a Harvard study that shows when hedge funds “double down” on losing positions, on average those tend to be their biggest winners.
Let’s look at the investments from this billionaire duo where they have been adding to their losers:
1) Phillips 66 (PSX) – Buffett revealed last September he had taken a $4.5 billon position in the energy stock Phillips 66. This is a typical Buffett stock. It sells for just 9 times earnings, a huge discount to the S&P 500’s P/E of 21, and the stock pays nearly 3% in a dividend. Furthermore, the company has a pristine balance sheet, with very little debt – a classic Buffett stock, cheap and safe. Buffett has added another $700 million to this stock just in the past two weeks. He’s the largest shareholder.
2) Chesapeake Energy (CHK) – Carl Icahn owns doubled his stake last spring when he bought 6.6 million shares of CHK for about $14. Icahn now owns 11% of Chesapeake. If the stock returns to the price where Icahn doubled down it would represent an almost 300% return for today’s levels. With the sharp fall in the stock price this past week, I wouldn’t be surprised if we find in the coming days that Icahn added more into the recent slide.
3) Cheniere Energy (LNG) – Carl Icahn also initiated a $1.3 billion position in energy stock LNG in August of last year, taking an 8% ownership in the company. Cheniere is on track to become the first U.S. company able to export liquefied natural gas. This makes LNG a classic “wide moat” (no competition) stock. Icahn has already secured two board seats on Cheniere’s board. Icahn’s “board seat effect” has proven to be a huge predictor of success for the legendary activist. According to an essay Icahn penned last year, when he gets a board seat in a company, his stock returns averages 27.5%. Since his initial stake in August, Icahn has added to his stake several times into the end of the year. He now owns 13.8% of LNG — the largest shareholder.
The best billionaire investors in the world have amassed their fortunes by being in the right place at the right time, and betting big.
Billionaires are billionaires because they think differently than the average person. They tend to see opportunities well before anyone else knows they are opportunities. They tend to go where some of the biggest risks are, because that’s also where the biggest returns can be found. They like to invest in situations only when they have an advantage. And when they have high conviction, they bet big.
Here’s a glimpse at these 8 big opportunities for the New Year:
Surprise Prediction #1: China – China’s slowdown this year, will turn into global economic fuel next year. (The Trade: iShares China Large-Cap ETF, symbol FXI)
China’s economic slowdown and stock market boom and bust has been one of the dominant themes of 2015. Multiple billionaires have taken the opportunity to load up.
Over the past 15-years, stocks have returned just 4.5% annualized. Meanwhile, Chase Coleman of Tiger Global has returned 21% annualized (gross of fees) on his long positions and became a billionaire in the most difficult stock market in our lifetimes. Coleman holds over 20% of his hedge fund in Chinese stocks. Billionaire Stephen Mandel, another top hedge fund manager, also has a huge chunk of his portfolio in Chinese stocks. And another billionaire, an astute macro investor, and one of the best performing investors in 2015, has one of his top positions in China.
Additionally, billionaire David Tepper thinks next year could be a boom for Chinese stocks and the economy, as he thinks the Chinese central bank could ease more aggressively than anyone thinks is possible. That positive fuel for the global economy could be the antidote for a global demand rebound.
Surprise Prediction #2: Stocks – The comfortable ride on the S&P train for the past six years is over. It’s a stock pickers market. (The Trade: iShares S&P 500 Value ETF, symbol IVE)
Billionaires have mixed views on the broad stock market. Bill Ackman and Leon Cooperman think stocks are a good value. Tepper has been uber bullish for much the past five years, but is more neutral now. Legendary billionaire investor Carl Icahn thinks there’s danger in high yield bond markets that could affect stocks.
More broadly speaking, the consensus view among the best investors in the world is that the broad stock market indicies won’t give you the easy returns we’ve had for the better part of 2009 to 2014. There will be more volatility, and it will be a stock pickers market! That’s when billionaire investors and hedge funds thrive. The winners will be the ones that can strategically identify the right stocks to own. A momentum driven market has favored index buying through this global economic recovery period, and now there is an over-due cyclical shift toward value. With billionaire investors and hedge funds primed to take advantage, the time to join our Billionaire’s Portfolio service couldn’t be better.
Surprise Prediction #3: Fed – The Fed could be forced to raise rates far more aggressively than they have planned. (The Trade: ProShares Short 20+ Year Treasury, symbol TBF)
As we said in the above, billionaire David Tepper thinks that China could ease more aggressively than anyone thinks is possible. If that happens, and it does indeed fuel a pop in global demand, the result could be quicker growth in the U.S. and quicker inflation than what is anticipated by the Fed. With that, the Fed could be forced to raise rates faster than expected.
For the past year the chatter among market participants has been about the potential for more a return to QE for the Fed (i.e. QE4). No one is talking about the Fed potentially being behind the curve on inflation, as they were for much of 2011-2013. This sets up the market for a surprise, which can result in sharp moves as people scurry from one side of the ship to the other.
Surprise Prediction #4: Commodities – Commodities are bottoming. (The Trade: DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund, symbol DBC)
Stanley Druckenmiller, billionaire and legendary macro trader, made his career picking tops and bottoms. He is taking a stab at bottom ticking commodities, loading up on gold, which is the top position in his family office fund. His former boss, George Soros has been scooping up coal and energy stocks. And in the most recent quarter, these macro trading legends have welcomed a lot of their fellow billionaires to the bottom fishing pond, as billionaire investors like Carl Icahn have been building stakes in stocks across the energy sector.
Surprise Prediction #5: Oil – Oil bounces to $70. (Energy Select SPDR, symbol XLE)
The self-made billionaire energy trader, Boone Pickens, has recently called for $70 oil in six months. He’s not the only oil bull. Another famous and very wealthy energy trader has called a bottom in oil too, and is looking for much higher prices. His name is Andy Hall.
He was one of the first energy traders to load up on oil futures in 2002, when oil was sub-$30, on the thesis that a boom in demand was coming from China.
In a recent letter to investors, he laid out an extensive fundamental case for higher oil prices and suggested a cut from OPEC could be coming as well. On that front, he noted that merely a hint of an OPEC policy change in August of 1986 spiked oil prices by 50% in just 24-hours.
So we have two of the greatest and wealthiest oil traders in the world that are long oil and have called for a return to much higher prices sooner rather than later.
Surprise Prediction #6: Bonds –Treasury bonds have topped, corporate bonds will fall hard. (ProShares Short High Yield, symbol SJB)
Everyone agrees treasury bonds are a top – though it’s claimed a lot of victims, including Bill Gross. Perhaps the most dangerous area in the bond market though, is high yield bonds. Companies have been borrowing cheap money and buying back stock at an aggressive rate. Billionaires from Icahn to Druckenmiller think the music has stopped, and the high yield bonds will continue to sink, while weak companies that have been in the business of pumping up share prices through share buybacks will fall.
Surprise Prediction #7: Biotech – Biotech and healthcare stocks have a big year. (The Trade: Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF, symbol IBB)
Biotech has been volatile over the past year and a half as it is a stock pickers market in the biotech sector – sparked by a very rare statement from the sitting Fed Chairman about biotech stock valuations, and most recently because of the political backlash associated with soaring drug costs. When average investors run out of the store, when stocks go on sale, the world’s best investors go on a shopping spree. Biotech and Healthcare stocks are where the big additions have been made in the past quarter in billionaire portfolios. No surprise, with share prices beaten down, M&A in the sector is at a record pace.
Surprise Prediction #8: Technology – New technology keeps booming! (The Trade: DJ Internet Index Fund, symbol FDN)
The Silicon Valley VC, Bill Gurley, has been sounding the alarm about a tech bust. But the reining godfather of the Silicon Valley VC, Marc Andreesen, says we’re not in a bubble, we are working our way out of a 15-year bust (i.e. big innovation is in the early stages). If Andreesen is right, and the technological revolution is closer to the bottom of a cycle than the top, expect more game changing companies to emerge.
The common theme of all of these billionaire surprise predictions is that strategic investing is returning, and riding the Fed-induced rising tide in the broad stock market indices is over. Between 2000 and 2010, when the S&P 500 returned zero, the billionaire investors and hedge funds we follow in the Billionaire’s Portfolio had some of their best performance ever, with some returning 30% to 40% a year over that period.
That type of outperformance comes from being in places where they see an opportunity before anyone else thinks it’s an opportunity. While the ETFs offer a way to play it, the big returns will come from being in select stocks that these billionaires are buying to capitalize on a market that is broadly wrong-footed on many of these predictions.
To get our best of the best portfolio of billionaire owned stocks at our new Billionaire’s Portfolio, subscribe today.
The goal of the Billionaire’s Portfolio is simple: to provide retail investors with the same plain-vanilla stock investments that the world’s greatest billionaire investors and hedge funds own. And our subscribers can invest alongside these billionaires without the typical $5 million minimum investments and paying big hedge fund management and performance fees. Instead, they get access to our best of the best portfolio of billionaire owned stocks for just $297 a quarter.
According to the Wall Street Journal, hedge fund manager John Armitage of Egerton Capital made $1.5 billion for his investors last year. Armitage was said to be short oil and energy stocks, pressing those position as much of his peers were looking for a bounce.
In a world where some of the world’s best investors will end the year down double digits, Armitage’s net worth has likely grown toward the billion dollar level after collecting fees on his top-tier industry performance.
So who is John Armitage?
Armitage graduated from Cambridge University in 1981 with a degree in modern history. He started his hedge fund Egerton Capital in 1994 and has put up some of the best risk-adjusted returns in the hedge fund industry since. Egerton has returned 15% net of fees with significantly less volatility than the S&P 500 since 1994. That’s why the fund has amassed more than $15 billion in assets under management.
For a glimpse into the best ideas from John Armitage, below are the top 5 holdings of his $15 billion hedge fund, Egerton Capital:
Time Warner Cable (TWC)
Southwest Airlines (LUV)
Gilead Sciences (GILD)
Comcast (CMCSA)
Priceline (PCLN)
Global financial markets have opened the year with selling and elevated fear. And it’s been led, again, by China. This brings back very fresh memories of August of last year, when a Chinese devaluation set off confusion in markets, sharp selling in Chinese stocks, which spilled over to global markets.
This actually plays in perfectly to what we expect to be the biggest theme of the year for markets – a surprisingly aggressive action from China to stimulate their economy and, in turn, fuel the global economy and a recovery in commodities. The behavior in Chinese stocks and the Chinese currency in the past few days underpin that investment thesis, and likely put policymakers in China in position (under pressure) to act sooner rather than later.
Billionaire investor David Tepper, the man that bought the bottom in banking stocks in 2009, and later completely changed broad stock market sentiment in 2010 by interpreting the Fed actions as a green light to buy stocks, has predicted that the Chinese central bank will give global growth and global demand a shot in the arm this year, by aggressively cutting rates and stimulating their economy through a variety of measures that will surprise the consensus view.
If Chinese policymakers do indeed act, and aggressively, this chart on commodities could represent one of the great trades of the decade. Remember, when China rolled out aggressive stimulus in 2009, they began stockpiling commodities that were trading at dirt cheap prices in the depths in the global financial crisis. Further, devaluations of the yuan help the Chinese rebuild currency reserves. What have they done with those reserves historically? They buy a lot of U.S. Treasuries. They buy a lot of commodities.
The chart above shows the Goldman Sachs Composite Commodities Index trading into a triple bottom and 16-year trendline support.
Today, shareholders of Keurig Green Mountain, (GMCR) woke up to a nice 75% pop in the value of their shares. A private equity firm is taking the company private for $13.9 billion or $92 a share. That’s made GMCR one of the biggest one day movers for an S&P 500 stock this year.
Most interesting, you could have participated in this huge winner.
Just last month, at “The Invest for Kids Chicago” hedge fund conference, Ricky Sandler of the $6.5 billion hedge fund, Eminence Capital, made a detailed presentation on why he thought Keurig Green Mountain was worth $85 to $100 a share. The stock was selling for around $50 at the time and Eminence owned $195,000,000 worth — the largest hedge fund owner of the stock.
Apparently the private equity firm JAB Capital agreed with Sandler. They paid a price at the mid-point of his valuation.
Now, if you were paying attention to this conference and bought the stock, clearly you could have made a lot of money. We attend or read the transcripts from every major hedge fund conference on the planet. These ideas are not often covered in the mainstream press or online media, and therefore are ripe for finding hidden investment gems like GMCR.
Today’s news is just one of many examples of stock takeovers that can be predicted by the presence of an influential investor. For example, just last month, at BillionairesPortfolio.com we predicted the takeover of MedAssets, thanks to the work and presence of activist investor Starboard Value (you can see those details here).
Of course, today’s star performer was Ricky Sandler and Eminence Capital. With that, here are the top 5 best ideas from Eminence Capital.
1) Zynga (ZNGA) – Another top idea Sadler presented at “The Invest for Kids Chicago” conference was Zynga. Sadler say Zynga is undervalued because it has $500 million in real estate (its San Francisco Headquarters) and a $1.15 in cash per share, meaning the market is valuing its underlying business for almost nothing. Sandler said if the stock were valued similar to its peer, King Digital, Zynga should be worth $5 a share or a double from its share price today.
2) AIG (AIG) – Another top idea of Eminence Capital is AIG. Eminence owns more than $350 million of AIG stock through a mix of shares and options, more than 5% of its portfolio. Billionaires Carl Icahn and John Paulson also own huge stakes in AIG and Icahn has said AIG could be worth as much as $100 a share or a 50% return from its share price today.
3) GNC (GNC) – GNC is the third largest position in Eminence Capital’s portfolio. It owns 6% of GNC. The stock is extremely undervalued as it has a forward P/E of 9, price to free cash flow of 11, and almost a 3% dividend. These valuation metrics put GNC in that “buyout candidate” territory, just like Keurig Green Mountain.
4) Men’s Wearhouse (MW) – Eminence Capital owns more than 8% of Men’s Wearhouse and has held onto the stock even as it’s been crushed. Men’s Wearhouse has dropped from $65 to $20 this year, making the stock very cheap. It has a price to sales of just .28. It sells below its book value. And it has a forward P/E of just 8 (about that of the S&P 500).
5) Autodesk (ADSK) – Eminence Capital’s top position is Autodesk. They own almost $300 million worth, making it nearly 5% of their portfolio. Autodesk is up 44% over the last 2 months, as it has been rumored to be another takeover candidate. A top $4 billion activist hedge fund, Sachem Head, owns 5.7% of the stock and launched an activist campaign on the company last month.
Billionairesportfolio.com, run by two veterans of the hedge fund industry, helps self-directed investors invest alongside the world’s best billionaire investors.
Goldman Sachs just released its most loved stocks list among the hedge fund community. Goldman narrows the thousands of stocks represented in the most recent quarterly 13F filings down to their “most important” 25. At Billionairesportfolio.com, we’ve narrowed that list down to the five stocks owned by billionaire hedge fund managers with the most potential upside.
Below are the five stocks:
1) Charter Communications (CHTR) – Charter is one of the top ten most owned stocks by hedge funds. Billionaire hedge fund managers Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital and John Paulson own large stakes in Charter. Mandel owns more than $1 billion worth of Charter. At the recent Robin Hood Investment Conference, one of Paulson’s portfolio managers said Charter could be worth as much as $325 a share, nearly 75% higher than current levels.
2) Yahoo (YHOO) – Yahoo is another popular stock owned by billionaire hedge fund managers. Billionaire David Einhorn and Starboard Value, a top $5 billion activist hedge fund, both own big stakes in Yahoo. The average analyst price target for Yahoo is $49 or a 50% potential return from its current share price.
3) General Motors (GM) – Another popular billionaire owned stock in the Goldman Sachs VIP (very important position) list is GM. Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper owns GM. If fact, GM is David Tepper’s largest equity position in his hedge fund. The average analyst price target for GM is $50 or almost a 50% return from its current share price.
4) AIG (AIG) – Billionaires Carl Icahn and John Paulson are two of the largest holders of AIG. Both billionaires have pushed for AIG to break up and spin off business units. Icahn recently said that if AIG breaks into three companies the company could be worth more than $100 a share. That would be a 56% return from its current share price.
5) Apple (AAPL) – Billionaires Carl Icahn and David Einhorn both hold Apple as their largest position. Icahn owns almost $6 billion of Apple. Piper Jaffrey recently put a $179 target price on Apple or a 51% return from its current share price.
Billionairesportfolio.com, run by two veterans of the hedge fund industry, helps self-directed investors invest alongside the world’s best billionaire investors.
At Billionairesportfolio.com we run an actively managed online portfolio of the “best ideas” from the world’s best billionaire investors and hedge funds. With that, we pay close attention anytime one of these great investors is making the case for one of their positions, particularly when feel confident enough to call it one of their best ideas. That’s precisely what we got a glimpse of these past two days at an annual fund raising event, the Robin Hood Investment Conference, hosted by billionaire hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones.
Here is a quick recap of their best ideas:
1) David Tepper- Billionaire David Tepper called the Chinese currency extremely overvalued. This view is in line with one he expressed in the past few weeks, arguing for the potential for China’s central bank to ease monetary policy more aggressively than most have thought. An aggressively easing PBOC and weakening of the yuan would be needed fuel for the sluggish Chinese economy, which would bode well for the outlook for Chinese stocks.
2) T. Boone Pickens – Self-made billionaire Boone Pickens told the Robin Hood audience to expect $70 oil by June of next year, which would be almost a double from oil’s price today. Pickens also said he liked the oil stock Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD). To trade Boone Pickens oil call you can buy the oil ETF (USO) or the oil and gas producers ETF (XOP).
3) Bill Ackman- Ackman reiterated his belief that Valeant (VRX) was extremely undervalued and that it should merge with Allergan (AGN) ,because Ackman does not believe the Allergan-Pfizer merger would be approved. Ackman also reiterated his view that Herbalife (HLF) was still a compelling short, with news from the DOJ to possibly come out today on nutritional supplements.
4) Larry Robbins – Billionaire Larry Robbins founder of the hedge fund Glenview Capital, pitched FMC, HCA and MON. Monsanto is Robbin’s second biggest position in his fund at almost $1.2 billion.
5) Dan Loeb – Billionaire Dan Loeb of Third Point said he thought Amgen (AMGN) and Allergan (AGN) should merge. Amgen is Loeb’s second biggest position in his hedge fund, at almost 13% or $1.4 billion.
6) John Paulson – Billionaire John Paulson’s top associate Samantha Greenberg pitched Charter Communications (CHTR). Greenberg said that Charter could be worth as much as $294 over the next year or almost a 60% return
from its share price today.
7) David Einhorn – Billionaire David Einhorn pitched Consol Energy (CNX). Einhorn first took a position in Consol at around $37 last year, today it sells for $7.80. That means if Consol just went back to the price Billionaire David Einhorn paid that would be more than a 350% return.
