Billionaire Barry Rosenstein’s Equity Picks Posted a 3.8% Drop In Q1

Founded in 2001, Barry Rosenstein‘s JANA Partners has reportedly delivered 23% annual returns since its inception. However, during the first three months of this year many of the fund’s equity picks struggled to stay in green territory, continuing a trend from 2015 that saw JANA post a very rare down year. The 29 holdings in the firm’s portfolio at the end of December in companies with a market capitalization of at least $1.00 billion, lost 3.8% in the first quarter in weighted average terms, based on the size of those positions in JANA’s portfolio on December 31. In this article we’ll take a closer look at the latest developments and performance of some of those stocks.

Our research at Insider Monkey determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

#5 Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)

 – Shares Owned by JANA Partners (as of December 31): 2.35 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of December 31): $436.90 Million

The stock price of the second-largest cable company in the U.S rose by 11% during the first quarter, representing one of the better performing stocks in Mr. Rosenstein’s portfolio last quarter. After a lengthy two-year regulatory review, it seems that the Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) and Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) merger might not be too far away, which has considerably improved the investor sentiment surrounding the former company, leading to the recent gains in its stock. Eric W. Mandelblatt‘s Soroban Capital Partners hiked its stake in Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) by 8% to 8.41 million shares during the October-to-December period.

#4 QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)

 – Shares Owned by JANA Partners (as of December 31): 9.21 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of December 31): $460.47 Million

JANA reduced its QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) holding by 67% during the fourth quarter. The stock was up slightly, by 1.3%, in the first three months of this year. Just recently the $75 billion technology company was downgraded by Barclays to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ and the price target on it cut to $50 from $55. The development came on the heels of reports that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) won a portion of iPhone 7 modem orders, which will put pricing pressure on Qualcomm, the previous sole supplier of these modems. Orbis Investment Management, which is led by William B. Gray, was bullish on QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) during the fourth quarter as it boosted its holding by 35% to 19.22 million shares.

Head to the next page to check out three more top stocks picks of the billionaire hedgie along with their recent performance.