Billionaire Marc Lasry’s Top Stock Picks: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (HMHC), Dynegy Inc. (DYN) & Others

Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital is a multi strategy hedge fund, focuses on distressed and undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In its latest 13F filing, Avenue Capital disclosed its equity portfolios as held at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013. In this piece we will focus on Avenue Capital’s top five holdings in terms of value.

Avenue Capital’s 13F portfolio had $1.31 billion in securities, significantly up from $834.49 million reported in the previous 13F.
The first one is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (NASDAQ:HMHC). This position was added in the fourth quarter, the fund revealed owning 11.52 million shares of the company with a reported value of $195.37 million.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (NASDAQ:HMHC), went public on November 14, 2013. A week after the IPO, Avenue Capital disclosed shedding 2.0 million shares of Houghton Mifflin at a price of $12 per share. Anchorage Advisors, led by Kevin Michael Ulrich, bought 72,818 shares after the IPO, and a couple of weeks after that the fund raised its exposure to 21.8 million shares

Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN), stood on the second spot in Avenue Capital’s equity portfolio, the position being boosted to 5.08 million shares from 4.88 million shares at the end of the third quarter. The value of the holding is $109.39 million.

The next on the list is Scorpio Bulkers Inc (NYSE:SALT), a company that went public in December and is a sister company of Scorpio Tankers, which is also one of the top holdings in Lasry’s latest 13F. The fund reported holding 10.33 million shares of Scorpio Bulkers. The value of the holding is $100.49 million.

In CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) Avenue Capital, disclosed the fourth-largest holding. The position is 1.73 million shares with a reported value of $90.21 million. The holding has been slightly raised from 1.56 million shares held at the end of the third quarter.

Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG) is represented in the Avenue Capital’s equity portfolio by a $89.13 million stake, which contains 7.56 million shares. The fund has edged up its position from 7.36 million shares, as revealed in 13F for the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none

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