Baidu Inc (ADR) (BIDU), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTSH), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX): Stephen Mandel’s Top Three Stock Picks

Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital has revealed for the second quarter a portfolio of 67 companies worth $24.7 billion. The value of all holdings increased since the last quarter by $1.7 billion or 1.08%. Mandel’s portfolio is fairly diversified across individual stocks, but heavily focused on services and technology sectors, which together make more than 65% of all holdings.

 Michael Kors Lone Pine Capital

The top pick for the quarter is Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), the Chinese search giant, where the investor has acquired additional 1.1 million shares, increasing its stake to 8.9 million shares. The boosted stake has a market value of $1.6 billion and is making 6.74% of the portfolio. Lone Pine remains the largest shareholder in Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) from the hedge – funds tracked by insidermonkey.com.

Other investors in Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) include Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global with 4.6 million shares worth $874 million and William Von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management with 2.3 million shares valued at $432 million.

On the second place in Mandel’s portfolio there is another information technology company, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:CTSH), where the Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund has 29 million shares, up by 3% since the last quarter. The stake in Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:CTSH) has a market value of $1.4 billion and makes 5.83% of the equity portfolio.

John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited is bullish on Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:CTSH) as well, having a stake of 6.4 million shares worth $316 million, as of the end of the second quarter.

On third place sits Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), the Canadian company involved in a high profile hostile takeover of its American counterpart Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN). Mandel is an investor in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) since 2013 and bought additional 1.2 million shares in the past quarter.  The 10 million shares, which have a market value of $1.2 billion, represent 5.14% of the portfolio.

From the hedge funds we track, only two investors have a bigger stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) than Lone Pine. Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital has 18.9 million shares worth 2.3 billion and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global owns 11.8 million shares valued at $1.4 billion.

Lone Pine Capital, which was founded by Mandel in 1997, has returned 23% on average since inauguration by employing a bottom-up investment strategy.

Disclosure: none