Billionaire Joshua Friedman’s Canyon Capital is Betting Big on These Stocks

#3 Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY)

– Shares Owned by Canyon Capital Advisors (as of June 30): 10.04 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $171.47 Million

Moving on, Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) was another stock in which Canyon Capital Advisors lowered its stake marginally during the second quarter, by 2%. Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY)’s stock was on a consistent downward trajectory since the company’s IPO in April 2014. However, that downward journey seems to have ended in June this year and the stock currently trades up  by 4.61% for 2016. According to analysts, the stock can see further upside in the coming months as the company is expected to purchase $700 million worth of its stock between the third quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2017 under its share repurchase program. Another reason that makes analysts bullish on the stock is its price-to-cash flow ratio of 1.6, which currently represents half of the average price-to-cash flow ratio of 3.2 at which its peers are trading at. Ally Financial recently started paying a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, which translates into an annual dividend yield of 1.64%. At the end of June, there were 49 investors covered by us that were long Ally Financial with the aggregate value of their holding in it amounting to $2.32 billion.

#2 MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM)

– Shares Owned by Canyon Capital Advisors (as of June 30): 17.41 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $394 Million

Canyon Capital Advisors increased its stake in MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) by 2% during the second quarter. Other funds that also increased their stakes in the company during that time included Eduardo Abush‘s Waterfront Capital Partners and Joseph Mathias‘ Concourse Capital Management. Although MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM)’s stock has mostly been in a range since the beginning of 2014, it has appreciated by 13.41% so far in 2016. Last month the company announced that it has completed its previously announced issuance of $500 million of 4.625% senior notes due 2026. MGM Resorts International intends to use the proceeds from this offering to help redeem its 7.625% senior notes due 2017. For its fiscal 2016 third quarter, analysts are expecting the company to report  EPS of $0.11 on revenue of $2.37 billion. For the same quarter of the previous financial year, MGM Resorts International had reported EPS of $0.12 on revenue of $2.28 billion.

#1 Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)

– Shares Owned by Canyon Capital Advisors (as of June 30): 18.57 Million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $697.58 Million

With Canyon Capital Advisors increasing its stake in the company by 66% during the second quarter, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) continued to remain the top stock pick of the fund at the end of that period. However, other hedge funds covered by us were collectively not as bullish on the company as the ownership of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) among them declined by 16 to 81 and the aggregate value of their holdings in it slid by over $1.1 billion to $6.76 billion during the second quarter. Shares of the one famous internet company lost over 40%  of their value between January 2015 and February 2016. However, they have performed exceedingly well in the last few months as the company’s core business was acquired by Verizon Communications and will merge with AOL in a deal worth $4.83 billion. On September 12, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman, Joseph Tsai, explained why the company is not interested in buying the remaining piece of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), which includes a minor stake in Alibaba, saying that the company will have to face a hefty U.S. tax bill if it tries to acquire those shares. Buckley Ratchford‘s Wingspan Investment Management was another hedge fund that significantly increased its stake in Yahoo! during the second quarter, by 180% to 1.97 million shares.

Disclosure: None