John Paulson (Trades, Portfolio) kept the majority of his long portfolio in health care in the first quarter though his top new buys came from a variety of industries.
In total, Paulson added 21 new positions to his portfolio. His 94 combined holdings were valued at $13.2 billion as of March 31. Fifty-six percent of the stocks are from the health care sector, most of which are likely part of his health care fund. All four of his top holdings are health care companies: Allergan Plc (AGN, Financial), Shire Plc (SHPG, Financial), Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA, Financial) and Mylan NV (MYL, Financial).
Paulson has also famously traded in gold since more investors began following him over the past decade. He had 21.8 million shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD, Financial) as recently as second quarter 2012, but reduced the position in the next several years. In the first quarter, he reduced the gold position by 17%, selling 1 million shares and retaining 4,775,012 shares.
Paulson, founder of investment management company Paulson & Co., specializes in macro and event strategies. Though Paulson made himself and many others wealthy out of the ashes of the financial collapse in 2007-09, he incurred losses in all three of his funds in 2015, according to the New York Times.
In the first quarter, none of his top four new long buys came from his two favorite sectors, health care and gold. Instead, Paulson chose: B/E Aerospace Inc. (BEAV, Financial), Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI, Financial), American Capital Ltd. (ACAS, Financial) and Office Depot Inc. (ODP, Financial).
B/E Aerospace Inc. (BEAV, Financial)
Paulson purchased 3 million shares, worth 1.05% of his portfolio. The stock’s first-quarter share price averaged $43.
B/E Aerospace Inc. has a market cap of $4.86 billion; its shares were traded around $47.51 with a P/E ratio of 16.93 and P/S ratio of 1.78. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of B/E Aerospace Inc. stocks is 1.71%. The forward dividend yield of B/E Aerospace Inc. stocks is 1.76%. B/E Aerospace Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 14.1% over the past 10 years.
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI, Financial)
Paulson purchased 3.14 million shares, worth 0.8% of the portfolio. The stock’s first-quarter share price averaged $33.
Activision Blizzard Inc. has a market cap of $28.4 billion; its shares were traded around $38.47 with a P/E ratio of 34.36 and P/S ratio of 5.9. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Activision Blizzard Inc. stocks is 0.68%. The forward dividend yield of Activision Blizzard Inc. stocks is 0.68%. Activision Blizzard Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 19% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Activision Blizzard Inc. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.
American Capital Ltd. (ACAS, Financial)
Paulson purchased 3,974,900 shares, worth 0.46% of the portfolio. The stock’s first-quarter share price averaged $14.
American Capital Ltd. has a market cap of $3.41 billion; its shares were traded around $15.64 with and P/S ratio of 6.03.
Office Depot Inc. (ODP, Financial)
Paulson purchased 7,809,600 shares, worth 0.42% of the portfolio. The stock’s first-quarter share price averaged $5.
Office Depot Inc. has a market cap of $1.93 billion; its shares were traded around $3.51 with a P/E ratio of 351 and P/S ratio of 0.13.
Paulson’s fifth largest holding was a biotech company, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN, Financial). He bought 157,200 shares of the company, worth 0.17% of the portfolio. The stock’s first-quarter share price averaged $148.
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