5 Stocks that Billionaire Ken Fisher Added to His Portfolio in Q1

Ken Fisher‘s investment experience spans about 44 years, and if that is not impressive enough, the money manager founded Fisher Asset Management in 1979 with about $250, which has since grown to about $61 billion worth of assets under management. The billionaire’s equity picks haven’t been performing all that well lately, but even with the current uncertainty engulfing the markets he is optimistic about his performance this year and sees clarity returning to the markets this year. We decided to take a look at some of the changes to Mr. Fisher’s portfolio during the first quarter, and zeroed in five stocks that he added to it during the period, which were the largest additions to his gargantuan portfolio. We’ll discuss those five additions below.

Our research determined that following the small-cap stocks, that hedge funds are collectively bullish on, can help a smaller investor beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

#5 Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE)

 – Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of March 31): 212,400

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $21.77 Million

Shares of the $2.9 billion global consumer products company have already climbed by more than 8% so far this year. Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) beat both the top and bottom-line estimates in its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, and is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth quarter and full 2016 fiscal year results on April 28. The company also recently announced the completion of its $210 million acquisition of Hydro Flask, a manufacturer of high performance insulated hydration vessels for active lifestyles. Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management initiated a holding containing 105,600 Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) shares during the October-to-December period.

#4 Lancaster Colony Corp. (NASDAQ:LANC)

 – Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of March 31): 341,200

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $37.98 Million

Mr. Fisher’s new stake in the $3 billion producer of specialty food products for the retail and foodservice markets accounts for 1.25% of the company’s outstanding stock. After a rapid slump in share price following Lancaster Colony’s announcement of its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016 in late January, the stock has made up considerable ground since then and is now down by just 4% this year. The company recently named David A. Ciesinski as its President and COO, to replace the retiring Bruce L. Rosa. Mr. Ciesinski recently served as the President of Kraft Foods’ meals solutions division. Jim Simons‘ quant fund Renaissance Technologies upped its Lancaster Colony Corp. (NASDAQ:LANC) holding by 1% to 732,600 shares during the fourth quarter.

We uncover Mr. Fisher’s top three new purchases made during the first quarter on the next page.

#3 NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI)

 – Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of March 31): 567,600

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $47.89 Million

Although trading nearly sideways this year, NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI)’s shares are down by over 16% during the last 12 months. The manufacturer of chips used in areas including automotive and mobile payments is set to benefit from its recent acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor, which extends NXP’s footprint in the automotive sector. On the other hand, the extension of suppressed iPhone production in the second quarter hasn’t been good news for the company, which lead to Raymond James recently downgrading it to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Strong Buy’. Eric W. Mandelblatt‘s Soroban Capital Partners hiked its NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) holding by 4% during the October-to-December period, to 5.24 million shares.

#2 JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD)

 – Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of March 31): 567,600

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $47.89 Million

China’s second-largest online retailer has seen its stock slide by more than 10% on a year-to-date basis. The company recently announced the merger of its O2O business, JD Daojia, with Dada Nexus Limited, a crowd sourcing delivery platform. JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) owns a 47.4% stake in the new company in exchange for resource support and $200 million in cash. Moreover, the word on the street says that the e-commerce giant is also set to offer $1.5 billion worth of bonds. Hillhouse Capital Management, which is led by Chinese billionaire Lei Zhang, held about 122.61 million shares of JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) at the end of last year.

#1 CalAtlantic Group Inc (NYSE:CAA)

 – Shares Owned by Fisher Asset Management (as of March 31): 2.23 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $78.54 Million

Shares of the builder of single-family attached and detached homes have fallen by about 8.9% so far this year, but Mr. Fisher seems to be positive that a change in fortune for one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S is forthcoming. CalAtlantic Group Inc (NYSE:CAA) has experienced strong revenue growth over the past year, though EPS has actually declined during that time, which may be cause for concern for investors. Nonetheless, shares have trended up since February 19, when the company released its fourth quarter and 2015 full-year financial results, gaining just under 31%. Given that, it’s possible Mr. Fisher has already made a tidy profit off of the investment, depending on when exactly during the first quarter he purchased the shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group owned about 4.19 million shares of CalAtlantic Group Inc (NYSE:CAA) at the end of the fourth quarter.

Disclosure: None