Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio) is CEO and CIO of Sands Capital Management, a firm that was founded by his father in 1992 and has grown from roughly $900 in assets under management to more than $23 billion. Most of his transactions involve reducing or increasing existing stakes in his portfolio, not buying new ones or selling old ones, and the first quarter of 2015 was no exception.
Sands more than doubled his stake in LendingClub Corp (LC, Financial), a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lending company, in the first quarter. Sands bought 13,862,781 shares for an average price of $20.83 per share. The purchase elevated his stake to fifth place in his Top 20 holdings (by volume) and had a 0.65% impact on his portfolio.
LendingClub has a market cap of $6.87 billion and an enterprise value of $9.24 billion. It has a Price/Book of 6.6 and a Price/Sales of 5.4. George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), John Griffin (Trades, Portfolio), Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio) and Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of LendingClub in their portfolios. John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio) and Leon Cooperman (Trades, Portfolio) sold their stakes in LendingClub in the first quarter.
Sands also raised his stake in FMC Technologies Inc (FTI, Financial), a Houston-based provider of equipment and services for the energy industry. Sands acquired 3,739,339 shares of FMC Technologies for an average price of $39.36 per share. That transaction lifted Sands’ stake in FMC Technologies to eighth in his Top 20 and had a 0.33% impact on his portfolio.
FMC Technologies has a market cap of $9.9 billion and an enterprise value of $10.54 billion. It has a P/E of 13.8, a Price/Book of 3.8 and a Price/Sales of 1.3. Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), Meridian Funds (Trades, Portfolio), First Pacific Advisors (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Michael Price (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of FMC Technologies in their portfolios. Columbia Wanger (Trades, Portfolio) and Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) sold their stakes in FMC Technologies in the first quarter.
Sands added to 28 other stakes in his portfolio, including his second-largest stake, Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW, Financial); his sixth-largest stake, Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA, Financial), and his ninth-largest stake, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA, Financial).
Until recently, Sands typically bought four or five new stocks every quarter. Lately, though, that number has dropped, and, in the first quarter of 2015, he invested in only two new stocks – Credicorp Ltd (BAP, Financial) and iShares S&P India Nifty 50 Index Fund (INDY, Financial).
The new buys weren’t as impressive as the additions to existing stakes, though. Sands bought 72,190 shares of Credicorp and 100,000 shares of iShares S&P India Nifty 50 Index Fund.
Reductions and divestitures
Sands reduced his stakes in 14 companies in the first quarter. His stake in Baidu (BIDU, Financial), a Beijing-based web services company, was one of his largest when the quarter began, but Sands sold 11,493,372 shares for an average price of $214.25 per share, and Baidu fell from his Top 20 stakes. The transaction had a -3.12% impact on Sands’ portfolio.
Baidu has a market cap of $71.7 billion and an enterprise value of $66.65 billion. It has a P/E of 34.1, a Price/Book of 8.0 and a Price/Sales of 8.5. Dodge & Cox, Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio), Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), Lee Ainslie (Trades, Portfolio), Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio), George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), Robert Karr (Trades, Portfolio), Louis Moore Bacon (Trades, Portfolio), John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Howard Marks (Trades, Portfolio), Matthews China Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Stanley Druckenmiller (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), RS Investment Management (Trades, Portfolio), Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio), Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio) and First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Baidu in their portfolios. Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) and John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio) sold their stakes in Baidu in the first quarter.
Sands also sold portions of his stakes in Google Inc (GOOG, Financial)(GOOGL, Financial), Facebook Inc (FB, Financial), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG), Nike Inc (NKE) and Visa Inc (V).
Sands sold his stakes in seven companies in the first quarter. The divestiture with the great impact on his portfolio was Sands’ sale of 10,816,658 shares of National Oilwell Varco Inc (NOV) for an average price of $54.23 per share. National Oilwell Varco is a Houston-based provider of equipment and components used in the oil and gas industry.
The other six stakes Sands sold were Yandex NV (YNDX), E2open Inc (EOPN), SAP SE (SAP), iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index (ETF) [IWF], Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT).
To view the portfolios of more gurus, visit the List of Gurus page. Not a premium member of GuruFocus? Try it free for 7 days.
