Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Top Moves from Latest 13F

Billionaire Ole Andreas Halvorsen, who once worked for Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, founded Viking Global Investors in 1999. The $30 billion hedge fund, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, returned a whopping 89% net-of-fees in its first year. The Norwegian-born billionaire also had a strong 2015 in terms of performance, considering that the overall hedge fund industry lost money last year. His Viking Global Equities fund returned 8.3% in 2015, while the Viking Long Fund posted gains of 4.5% last year. Mr. Halvorsen’s Viking Global is a long/short global equity hedge fund, which makes it relatively convenient for individual investors to track the billionaire’s long term bets. Data compiled by Insider Monkey show that Viking Global’s 62 long positions in companies with a market capitalization above $1 billion generated a weighted average return of 3.7% in 2015. That being said, the following article will discuss five noteworthy moves undertaken by Halvorsen and Viking Global during the final quarter of 2015.

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To begin with, the Norwegian-born money manager upped his stake in Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) by 10.18 million shares or 43% during the fourth quarter of 2015 to 33.75 million shares. This was the billionaire’s largest equity position on December 31, worth $1.95 billion. In May 2015, semiconductor Avago Technologies sealed a deal to buy Broadcom Corporation for $37 billion in a cash-and-stock deal that was completed earlier this month. The combined company is now called Broadcom Limited, while its ordinary shares are trading under ticker symbol “AVGO”. Under the terms of agreement, former Broadcom shareholders could choose whether to receive $54.50 per share in cash, 0.4378 Holdco ordinary shares (which currently represent Broadcom Limited ordinary shares), or 0.4378 Restricted Exchangeable Units of Safari Cayman L.P., which is a direct wholly-0wned subsidiary of Holdco. Equity holders of 188.76 million shares of Broadcom common stock, or 30.7% of outstanding common stock, made the cash election, while equity holders of 238.06 million shares made an election to receive ordinary shares of Broadcom Limited. Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management owned 20.73 million shares of Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) as of December 31.

Viking Global was bullish on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) during the December quarter, as the fund increased its stake in the company by 16.17 million shares to 25.04 million shares. The expanded stake was valued at $1.64 billion at the end of December. In July 2015, the Israel-based Teva announced the acquisition of Allergan’s generics drug business for $33.75 billion in cash and approximately 100 million Teva shares, which will create the world’s largest maker of generic medicines if the deal is approved. This move will strengthen the global pharmaceutical company’s negotiating power with governments and private health insurers. Reportedly, the deal is anticipated to be finalized by early April. Analysts at Argus believe that the aforementioned acquisition will drive up operating efficiencies and sales, as well as improve margins. Argus recently reiterated the ‘Buy’ rating on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA), but slashed the price target to $75 from $82. Billionaire John Paulson’s Paulson & Co represents the second-largest shareholder of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA) within our database with 20.41 million shares as of December 31.

Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen owns 1.85 million Class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of the end of the December, 680,869 shares less quarter-on-quarter. The reduced stake was worth $1.44 billion on December 31 and accounted for 5.44% of the fund’s equity portfolio. Alphabet has been extremely successful in monetizing on the transition of advertising dollars from traditional media to the online space. The shares of the technology giant have advanced 35% over the past 12 months, so the investor might have decided to take some profits off the table during the quarter. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is not only known for the highly-successful online advertising business; the company’s Other Bets segment, which includes businesses such as Access/Google Fiber, Calico, Nest, and others, is expected to generate incremental revenues in the upcoming years. Reportedly, Google is closing down its comparison-shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards and mortgages, called Google Compare. The web site enables customers to view various offers from auto insurers, mortgage lenders and credit-card issuers. John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital LLC owns 358,000 class A shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as of December 31.

Viking Global boosted its holding in Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) by 2.71 million shares or 40% during the fourth quarter to 9.37 million shares, which were valued at $1.17 billion. The shares of the independent oil and gas exploration and production company are down by 20% over the past 52 weeks, but are flat year-to-date. The company’s growth plan relies on its horizontal drilling activities in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp oil field that is located in West Texas, but the company has additional oil and gas production activities in other locations, including the liquid-rich Eagle Ford Shale field. Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD)’s oil and gas revenues for 2015 decreased to $2.18 billion from $3.60 billion reported for 2014. Expectedly, the decrease was mainly due to a 46% fall of the average commodity prices per BOE, which was slightly offset by an increase in sales volumes. Paul Sankey, senior oil and gas analyst at Wolfe Research, said last week that he anticipates bankruptcies in the industry on a daily basis. However, the analyst and his firm are the most optimistic about Pioneer Natural Resources, citing heavy hedging. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital acquired a new stake of 2.40 million shares in Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) during the fourth quarter.

Billionaire Ole Andreas Halvorsen trimmed his position in Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) by 10.50 million shares during the October-December period to 12.77 million shares worth $1.09 billion. In October 2015, the global pharmacy-led health and wellbeing enterprise sealed an agreement to purchase drugstore chain Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD), a deal that is anticipated to close in the second half of 2016. The shares of the company have inched down by 7% year-to-date. It appears that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)’s shares are fairly valued at the moment if considering its forward P/E of 15.76, which is very close to 15.8 for the Drug Retail industry average. It should be mentioned that the number of smart money investors tracked by Insider Monkey with positions in Walgreens Boots Alliance dropped to 78 from 91 during the December quarter. Activist Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners holds a stake of 12.30 million shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) as of the end of December.

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