Dan Loeb's Third Point disclosed an equity portfolio valued at some $10.95 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2015. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Health Care (27%), Consumer Discretionary (15%) and Information Technology (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 Loeb’s equity portfolio (which comprises 60.30% of the total portfolio value), the three top positions are: Amgen Inc. (AMGN, Financial), Actavis PLC (ACT, Financial) and The Dow Chemical Company (DOW, Financial).
Despite having reduced its weight by 6%, Third Point still holds 14.6% of its portfolio in Amgen Inc., with 10.0 million shares. The value of the stake amounts to $1.59 billion. In that period, the stock gained only 0.35%. The company tries to advance with the cure of a disease that affects 2% of the world population, the migraine. This looks like a good opportunity to launch a new product. Other giants like Eli Lilly (LLY, Financial) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA, Financial) are working too. Further, Amgen has addressed two aspects considerably. On the one hand, it has invested heavily in manufacturing techniques. Additionally, it has developed a cost-cutting program that allows the firm to generate better margins.
Other prominent investor long in the stock is Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), with 1.52 million shares, valued at $243.6 billion, held as of the end of the Q1 2015.
Actavis represents the second most valuable investment in the fund’s portfolio. After a 4% increase in the company’s stake during the first quarter, the fund amounted to about 3.5 million shares valued at $1.06 billion. The stock has surged by 15.61% in the first quarter and has achieved a 46.06% return in the past twelve months. Further, the stock’s total return is at 16.98% in a year-to-date basis, compared to 10.75% for Novartis AG (NVS, Financial) or 5.37% for Teva Pharmaceutical. Earlier this month, Actavis has acquired Auden Mckenzie Holdings Limited, a med company with focus on the UK markets.
At the end of the first-quarter, prominent investors such as Andreas Halvorsen and John Paulson (Trades, Portfolio) held a large number of the company´s shares, its stake containing 6.1 and 5.6 million shares, respectively.
Next in line is Dow Chemical, in which the fund held about 22.0 million shares valued at $1.05 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2015. With a market cap of $59.94 billion, the stock is up by 3.16% during the first quarter but had a negative return of almost 5% over the past twelve months. According to an article published on Reuters, the SEC is investigating allegations of misspending. It is questionable whether Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO, misused company funds for personal use.
Daniel S. Och was the second-largest shareholder with a stake of 14.48 million shares of Dow Chemical valued at $694.9 million.
Disclosure: As of this writing, Omar Venerio did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks.
