Billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group has boosted his position in Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP). In a newly-amended filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Griffin disclosed owning 5.79 million shares of Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP), representing a massive increase from 3.77 million shares the investor held as of March 31. The current stake equates to 5.6% of the company’s common stock, and is passive by nature.
We don’t just track the latest moves of hedge funds. We are, in fact, more interested in their 13F filings, which we use to determine the top 15 small-cap stocks held by the funds we track. We gather and share this information based on 16 years of research which showed that these 15 most popular small-cap picks have a great potential to outperform the market, beating the S&P 500 Total Return Index by nearly one percentage point per month in backtests, and easily beating the most popular large-cap picks of funds, which nonetheless get the majority of their collective capital. Why pay fees to invest in both the best and worst ideas of a particular hedge fund when you can simply mimic only the very best ideas of the best fund managers on your own? Since the beginning of forward testing in August 2012, the Insider Monkey small-cap strategy has outperformed the market every year, returning 142%, nearly 2.5 times greater returns than the S&P 500 during the same period (see more details).
Ken Griffin launched Citadel Investment Group in 1990. The fund manager boasts a public equity portfolio valued at an impressive $89.81 billion, and his primary investment sectors are consumer discretionary, technology, and finance. In this article, we’ll also talk about Griffin’s top banking stock picks, including Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).
Follow Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group
Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) is a $3.50-billion market cap banking firm that operates in Puerto Rico and the United States. Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) posted strong financial results for the first quarter of 2015, with net income increasing to $74.8 million, compared to $48.9 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. In February, Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) subsidiary Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (“BPPR”), in an alliance with co-bidders, acquired certain assets and all deposits of Doral Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as receiver. This acquisition allowed the company to record goodwill of about $43 million and a core deposit intangible asset of about $24 million. Shares of Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) have increased by 5.83% during the past year. Among the largest shareholders of Popular Inc (NASDAQ:BPOP) is Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, which holds 5.80 million shares as of the end of March.
Now let’s take a look at Griffin’s top banking stock picks, beginning with Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), in which Griffin decreased his stake by 42% to 6.17 million shares valued at $317.9 million. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) was one of the most popular stocks among investment managers during the first quarter, with 126 funds tracked by Insider Monkey disclosing positions in Citigroup Inc, with an aggregate investment of $11.63 billion. For the first quarter of 2015, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) posted net income of $4.8 billion, or $1.51 per share, versus $3.9 billion, or $1.23 per share in the same quarter last year. However, revenues of $19.7 billion were down from revenues of $20.2 billion in the same period last year. During the past year, shares of the $169.85 billion financial services company have risen by nearly 16%. Eagle Capital Management, led by Boykin Curry, held 26.35 million shares of the company at the end of March.
Griffin was bullish on Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the first quarter, boosting his stake in the company to 8.73 million shares, worth $311.5 million, from just 245,502 shares held at the end of 2014. Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm with a market cap of $77.05 billion. The company’s stock has gained 24.25% during the past calendar year. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported an increase in its first quarter 2015 income from continuing operations to $2.4 billion, compared to $1.5 billion for the same period a year ago. Its revenues for the quarter increased to $9.9 billion, versus $9.0 billion a year ago. In addition, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share, for a yield of 1.50%, from the previous dividend rate of $0.10 per share. Another investor with a big position in the company is Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, which holds 11.05 million shares as of March 31.
Disclosure: None
