Bearish Billionaires Were Selling These 5 Stocks Last Quarter

#3 General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 11

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $3.11 billion

Moving on, though the number of billionaire investors in our database with a long position in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) inched down by three during the fourth quarter, the aggregate value of their holdings in the company saw an increase of $175 million. That inconsistency can be attributed to the over 10% rise in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s stock during the fourth quarter. Shares of General Motors Company have fallen by over 7% so far this year and are currently trading at a really low forward P/E of only 5.47. Analysts believe that at those levels, General Motors’ stock represents a low-risk, high-reward opportunity, since the company has several value-creating factors which will help it deliver an IRR of 15% through 2020. On February 24, analysts at Credit Suisse reiterated their ‘Outperform’ rating and $38 price target on the stock. Larry Robbins was one of the billionaires to close a position in GM during the fourth quarter, with his fund Glenview Capital selling its entire stake of 2.55 million shares.

#2 Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 11

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $3.78 billion

Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)’s stock was trading down by over 20% year-to-date until a few weeks ago. Led by better-than-expected fourth quarter financial numbers, Priceline shares made a swift 30% move upwards and are now trading in the green for the year. Whereas analysts had projected the company to report EPS of $11.80 on revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, Priceline declared EPS of $12.63 on revenue of $2.00 billion. Though the company’s U.S bookings fell by 7.6% year-over-year during the fourth quarter, its international bookings during the same period were up by 15% year-over-year, despite facing major currency headwinds. The 30 prominent analysts and research houses that cover the stock currently have an average rating of ‘Overweight’ on it, with an average price target of $1,481. In spite of a decline of three to its ownership among the billionaire investors covered by us during the fourth quarter, the aggregate value of their holdings in Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) during the same period jumped by 48%. Billionaire John Griffin‘s Blue Ridge Capital continued to own 263,900 shares of the company at the end of fourth quarter.

#1 eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 15

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $1.44 billion

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s was the 16th-most popular stock among the billionaire investors that we track at the end of the fourth quarter. However, its ownership among those investors slipped by two and the aggregate value of their holdings in it declined by over 28% during the October-to-December period. Shares of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) currently trade down by over 11% year-to-date, owing largely to the slump they suffered after the company reported its fourth quarter earnings in late-January. Though the company’s ticket auction platform StubHub has seen tremendous growth in the past few quarters, analysts feel that it alone won’t be enough to push the stock higher and that the company needs to start showing some growth in its core business. On March 2, eBay approached the credit markets to raise $1.5 billion through two separate bond offerings of $750 million each, just nine days after pricing an offering of $750 million in debt. Though the company mentioned the reason for raising the debt as ‘general corporate purposes’, investors feel there is a good chance that some of it will be deployed towards share buybacks. D.E. Shaw, founded by billionaire David E. Shaw, made a nearly three-fold increase to its stake in the company, during the fourth quarter, to almost 7.7 million shares.

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