Billionaire Daniel S. Och’s Biggest Bets For Q4

#3 Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX)

 – Shares Owned by OZ Management (as of September 30): 11.71 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $805 Million

Moving on, the 21% decline that shares of Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) suffered during the third quarter gave OZ Management another opportunity to increase its stake in the company, by 23%, after increasing it during the second quarter by 4%. According to recent reports, Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) might be on the verge of becoming one of the main investors in streaming company Hulu. On November 16, analyst Brett Harriss of Gabelli & Company released a note to clients in which he anticipated  that Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) might re-bid for Time Warner Inc, after the former failed to acquire the latter last year.  On November 13, analysts at Barclays reiterated their ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Time Warner Inc’s stock, but lowered their price target on it to $80 from $88. Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management reduced its stake in Time Warner Inc by 12% to almost 2.5 million shares during the July-to-September period.

#2 Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA)

 – Shares Owned by OZ Management (as of September 30): 9.9 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $821.4 Million

Retail pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) is the only company in this list in which OZ Management reduced its stake during the third quarter; the fund sold almost 540,000 shares of the company during that period. Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) have mostly been range-bound throughout most of 2015 and currently trade up by over 7% year-to-date. On October 28, the same day that the company reported its fiscal year 2015 fourth quarter results, it also announced that it would be acquiring smaller rival Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) in a $17.2 billion deal. John Armitage‘s Egerton Capital Limited more than doubled its stake in Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) to 4.46 million shares during the third quarter.

#1 Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN)

 – Shares Owned by OZ Management (as of September 30): 4.04 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $1.10 Billion

Finally, even though Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN)’s stock [formerly Actavis, PLC] dropped by more than 10% during the quarter, the 360,704 shares that OZ Management purchased during that period helped Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN) retain its spot as the fund’s largest equity holding by the end of September. On November 22, pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) announced that it would buy Allergan PLC in a $160 billion deal. However, instead of rising shares, both stocks fell when they opened for trading that morning, mostly because investors realized that this merger would actually bring lower cost savings than they had originally anticipated. Analysts at Mizuho reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating and $340 price target on Allergan PLC’s stock on the same day nonetheless. First Eagle Investment Management also increased its stake in Allergan PLC during the third quarter; it held slightly more than 1.67 million shares of the company as of September 30.

Disclosure: None