Billionaire Alan Howard’s Brevan Howard Fund Sold All but Two Stocks in Q2

YPF SA (ADR) (NYSE:YPF)

YPF SA was one of Brevan Howard’s major holdings at the end of the first quarter, accounting for 6.33% of the fund’s equity portfolio on March 31. Shares of the energy company have declined by around 10% in the current quarter. However, owing to the gains it had registered earlier in the year, the stock is still trading up by 9% year-to-date. YPF SA currently pays an annual dividend of $0.15 per share, which based on its last trading price translates into an annual dividend yield of 1.71%. Following the departure of its former CEO Miguel Galuccio in April, the Argentinean state-controlled oil company named Ricardo Darre, who served as a managing director at Total (NYSE:TOT), as its new CEO in June. YPF SA’s stock currently trades at a price-to-book multiple of only 0.7, which is significantly below the average price-to-book multiple of 1.1 at which its oil sector peers are trading. At the end of June, there were 26 hedge funds covered by us that had long positions in YPF SA with the aggregate value of their holdings in it amounting to $514.13 million.

#2. Ocwen Financial Corp (NYSE:OCN)

– Shares Owned by Brevan Howard (as of June 30): 21.86 Million

– Value of The Holding (as of June  30): $251.43 Million

Brevan Howard didn’t make any changes to its stake in Ocwen Financial Corp during the second quarter. However, during the same period Michael Kao‘s Akanthos Capital boosted its stake in the company by 86% to 1.3 million shares. Ocwen Financial Corp has lost more than 90% of its market capitalization since the beginning of 2014. This year alone the stock  of the mortgage company has lost almost 50% of its value, with most of those losses coming in after Ocwen Financial Corp reported its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter results in late-February. For its most recent quarter, analysts had expected the company to report a per share loss $0.43, however, Ocwen Financial Corp again disappointed them by reporting a per share loss of $0.71. Nevertheless, the revenue of $373.05 million was higher than the $324.05 million that analysts had estimated. On September 14, analysts at Compass Point upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ while keeping their price target on it unchanged at $4.50. The number of funds covered by Insider Monkey that had long positions in  Ocwen Financial Corp came down by three to 16 during the second quarter and the aggregate value of their holdings in it also slumped by 43.75% to $36.10 million.

#1. CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME)

– Shares Owned by Brevan Howard (as of June 30): 21.86 Million

– Value of The Holding (as of June  30): $251.43 Million

Though Brevan Howard kept its stake in CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) unchanged during the second quarter, other hedge funds covered by us collectively became more bullish on the company during that period. The ownership of the company among them during the second quarter rose by four to 49  and the aggregate value of their holdings in it jumped by $264 million to $1.24 billion. CME Group’s stock has appreciated by almost 20% so far in 2016 and is currently trading around its 52-week high. Despite this rally, the stock still sports a respectable annual dividend yield of 1.20% currently. Most analysts who track the stock are currently bullish on it, including analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who, on September 12, set a price target of $116 on it while reiterating their ‘Buy’ rating. For its fiscal 2016 third quarter, analysts are expecting the company to report EPS of $1.06 on revenue of $853.25 million. For same quarter of last year, CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) had reported EPS of $1.02 on revenue of $850.30 million.

Disclosure: None