Arrowstreet Capital is a Boston, Massachusetts-based quantitative hedge fund founded by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell in 1999. Apart from its headquarters in Boston the firm also runs two additional offices in London and Sydney and boasted of assets under management of nearly $54 billion, as of September 30, 2015. Arrowstreet Capital recently submitted its 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the reporting quarter ending September 30. The filing revealed that the value of its US equity portfolio more than doubled to $38.77 billion at the end of September from almost $17.7 billion at the end of June. According to the filing, during the third quarter the fund initiated stake in 483 stocks and made additional purchases in 840 stocks, while it sold its entire stake in just one stock and reduced its holding in only five stocks. In this article we will be analyzing the fund’s top five largest holding going into the fourth quarter.
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#5 Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR)(NYSE:NVO)
Shares Owned by Arrowstreet Capital (as of September 30): 6.86 million shares
Value of Holding (as of September 30): $372.269 Million
Although Arrowstreet Capital added an additional 1.12 million shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR)(NYSE:NVO) during the third quarter, the healthcare behemoth continued to remain its fifth largest holding at the end of September. Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR)(NYSE:NVO) have corrected significantly from their peak in early-August, but are still trading up more than 28% year-to-date. On November 8, it was reported that the company’s diabetes drug ‘Victoza’ had failed in tests conducted to improve clinical stability or delay death in patients suffering from advanced heart failure. For the third quarter of fiscal 2015, the company delivered EPS of $0.49 on revenue of $4.0 billion. Analysts had expected it to report EPS of $0.47 on revenue of $4 billion. Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management initiated a stake in the company during the second quarter by purchasing 415,737 shares.
Follow Novo Nordisk A S (NYSE:NVO)
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#4 Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX)
Shares Owned by Arrowstreet Capital (as of September 30): 6.77 million shares
Value of Holding (as of September 30): $385.182 Million
Following the age old mantra of adding to winning trades, Arrowstreet Capital increased its stake in Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) by 129% or almost 3.82 million shares during the July-September period. Shares of the coffee retail chain have an unprecedented rise of more than 50% this year, 6.29% of which came during the volatile third quarter alone. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) reported its third quarter earnings on October 29, declaring EPS of $0.43 on revenue of $4.91 billion, versus Street’s estimate of EPS of $0.43 on revenue of $4.90 billion. On November 5, analysts at Argus reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock and upped their price target on it to $72 from $68. Steve Leonard‘s Pacifica Capital Investments doubled its stake in the company during the April-June period to 578,948 shares.
