Jim Simons' (Trades, Portfolio) Renaissance Technologies disclosed an equity portfolio valued at some $46.96 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2015. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Technology (18%), Finance (16%) and Health Care (15%) stocks.
In this article, we will look into the top three holdings held at the end of Q1. Among the 10 largest holdings from Simons’ equity portfolio (which comprises 9.88% of the total portfolio value), the three top positions are: Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL, Financial), Novo Nordisk A/S ADR (NVO, Financial) and Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK, Financial).
In Colgate-Palmolive, the fund holds 12.74 million shares, up by 2% on the quarter. The value of the stake amounts to $883.6 million. In that period, the stock gained only 0.22%.
According to a recent article from Fortune, Colgate-Palmolive is among the ten most purchased brands in the world and we can say that it is also the global oral care leader. The firm has an extraordinarily good geographic reach. International sales represent more than 80% of total sales and the growth in emerging markets is fascinating. It started 90 years ago in Mexico and 75 years in countries such as India and Brazil.Â
The second largest shareholder of the company is Jean-Marie Eveillard, with 4.86 million shares, valued at $337.6 billion, held as of the end of the Q1 2015.
Novo Nordisk A/S ADR represents the second most valuable investment in the fund’s portfolio. After an 8% reduction in the company’s stake during the first quarter, the fund amounted to about 14.5 million shares valued at $774.9 million. The stock has surged by 26.16% in the first quarter and managed to more than double its return in a one-year period, achieving 136.24%. Further, the stock’s total return is at 32.34% in a year-to-date basis, compared to 10.64% for Pfizer Inc. (PFE, Financial). The health care company has revealed new findings in the diabetes arena and yesterday Morgan Stanley (MS, Financial) upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal-Weight.
At the end of the first-quarter, Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio)´s Fisher Asset Management held a large number of the company's shares, its stake containing 12.66 million shares valued at about $675.9 million.
Next in line is Alaska Air Group, a passenger and cargo air transportation company. The fund held about 6.82 million shares valued at $451.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015. With a market cap of $94.78 billion, the stock is up by 10.74% during the first quarter and 45.88% over the past twelve months. The company has an expansion plan of routes, serving more than 100 cities and obviously contributing to generate good revenue growth. For example, in May it experienced a 10.7% increase when compared to the same month a year ago. So far this year, the growth has been similar.
Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro held a stake of 4.55 million shares of Alaska Air Group valued at $451.6 million.
Disclosure: As of this writing, Omar Venerio did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks.
