Renaissance Technologies is a hedge fund based in New York City. Its clients are basically pooled investment vehicles as well as banking or thrift institutions and corporations interested in the American public equity markets. The fund has a quit diversified equity portfolio invested in information technology, finance, healthcare, consumer discretionary and staples sectors. Renaissance Technologies was founded in 1982 by Jim Simons, who has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to the latest 13F filing reported to the SEC, the manager’s top three small-cap picks include: Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT), Cboe Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBOE) and Cyberonics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYBX).
At Insider Monkey, we closely follow the activity of over 700 large and small hedge funds. This helps us to build a portfolio from their most popular small-cap picks, which historically managed to beat the market by almost one percentage point per month. While the general opinion is that following the most popular picks among hedge funds can help an investor to outperform the market, we have designed a system that can do that with an even higher margin. Our strategy that imitates the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among the funds we track managed to return 132% over the last 2.5 years (read more details here), beating the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by almost 80 percentage points.
Jim Simons’s top small-cap pick is Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT), even if he cut off 103,600 shares of the stake, which contains 1.27 million shares, valued at more than $244 million as of the end of March. Allegiant Travel is a $2.70 billion company providing travel services and products from small cities to world-class destinations. For the first quarter of 2015, the company reported $329.2 million in operating revenue, which is 8.8% higher than for the same period of 2014, as well as a 89.8% increase on the year to $64.9 million in net income. The leisure travel company has recently launched some more low-cost nonstop flights within the country under its Allegiant Air carrier. Another important shareholder of Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) among the funds we track is David E. Shaw‘s D. E. Shaw, who owns around 58,500 shares and holds ‘Put’ and ‘Call’ options underlying shares of Allegiant as of the end of March.
The latest 13F filing disclosed Renaissance Technologies’ position of almost 3.85 million shares, valued at $221 million in Cboe Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBOE), after acquiring some 99,200 shares during the first quarter. The $4.88 million market cap company is the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options. At the beginning of May, Cboe Holdings, Inc., which comes from Chicago Board Options Exchange, has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2015. The company has reported $142.8 million in operating revenue, compared with $157.9 million a year ago. The net income is almost 14% down on the year, amounting to $42.1 million, or $0.50 per diluted share. A few days ago, Cboe Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBOE) received the “Derivatives Exchange of the Year – Americas” title at Global Capital’s Americas Derivatives Awards 2015 ceremony in New York City. Horizon Asset Management, managed by Murray Stahl, is another fund that we track with a position of 1.93 million shares in Cboe Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBOE).
Jim Simons reduced his stake in Cyberonics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYBX) by 190,900 shares to 2.07 million shares, valued at $134.07 million. The $1.67 billion medical device company designs, develops, sells and markets the VNS (vagus nerve stimulation) Therapy System, an implantable medical device that delivers a therapy using pulsed electrical signals applied to the vagus nerve for the treatment of refractory epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The company has a P/E ratio of 26.12 and registered a gain of $0.63 per share at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. In May, Cyberonics, Inc. merged with Sorin S.p.A., a global medical device company and a leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, Stephen Dubois’ Camber Capital Management and William Leland Edwards’ Palo Alto Investors are other shareholders of Cyberonics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CYBX) among the funds we track.
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