Cantillon Capital Management is a company investing in worldwide public equity markets, founded in 2003 by William von Mueffling. The fund has more than $5.11 billion in its equity portfolio as of the end of March, of which more than 60% is invested in information technology and finance stocks. In this article we will take a closer look at four tech companies in which Cantillon holds long positions: Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI), Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Sensata Technologies Holding NV (NYSE:ST).
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According to the 13F filing, Cantillon Capital Management owns around 7.74 million shares of Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI), valued at $487.34 million. Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI) is a leading company in designing and producing electronic equipment (semiconductor products and solutions) with almost $3 billion in annual revenue. The company has announced a dividend of $0.40 per share for the first quarter, which gives it a yield of 2.53%. Other shareholders of Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI) include Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, and Ken Hahn’s Quentec Asset Management.
William von Mueffling cut his stake in Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) to 2.29 million shares a decrease of 8,059 shares, with the position being valued at $476.51 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015. The leading Chinese-language Internet search provider registered $2.05 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up by 34% compared to the same period of 2014. Other funds with significant positions in Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) are Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management with 7.03 million shares and 2.95 million shares respectively as of the end of 2014.
Cantillon Capital Management also holds Class A and Class C shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of March, although the ownership was trimmed in each during the January-March period. The fund disclosed a $284.66 million stake that contains 513,170 Class A shares, as well as 402,126 Class C shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) with a value of $220.37 million. The tech giant with a market cap of $364 billion has registered $17.26 billion in revenue for the first quarter, which is an 11.93% increase from the previous year. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management disclosed owning around 822,300 shares of Google’s Class A stock in its 13F filing for the end of the first quarter of 2015.
Cantillon Capital Management strengthened its position in Sensata Technologies Holding NV (NYSE:ST) by acquiring 802,450 shares. At the end of March, the investor held some 3.54 million shares, valued at $203.32 million. Sensata Technologies is a $19 billion producer of sensors and controls, whose shares jumped by almost 30% in the last 52 weeks. Analysts also seem to be bullish on the stock, which has a consensus ‘Buy’ rating. Moreover, last month both Stifel Nicolaus and Barclays raised their price targets on the stock, to $65.00 and $64.00 per share respectively, and reiterated ‘Buy’ and ‘Overweight’ ratings. Billionaires John Griffin and Dan Loeb also own shares of the company, according to their latest 13F filings.
In addition, while Mr. Mueffling only slightly changed his stakes in the previously mentioned tech companies, he sold out of his position in Altera Corp. (NASDAQ:ALTR), which previously contained some 5.59 million shares. The company’s stock spiked at the end of March as it was announced that Intel had been in talks to acquire it. However, a potential deal fell through a week later as Altera Corp. (NASDAQ:ALTR) rejected Intel’s $54 per share offer. Some recent reports suggest that Intel may now pursue a hostile takeover, a move that will be most likely be appreciated by Altera Corp. (NASDAQ:ALTR)’s shareholders, some of which having tried to pursue the sale to Intel over the last month. One of them is Eric Bannasch of Cadian Capital, who reportedly sent a letter to the company urging Altera Corp. (NASDAQ:ALTR) to relaunch negotiations with Intel.
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