Billionaire Michael Price Enjoys Further Growth Among Stock Picks

Expert value investor Michael Price‘s New York-based hedge fund MFP Investors recently has disclosed its equity holdings as of the end of March in a 13F filing with the SEC. Considering Price’s sharp investment acumen, which he honed at Heine Securities when he joined in 1975 as a research assistant and 21 years down the line sold the firm managing more than $17 billion worth of mutual funds for $670 million, we have decided to look at MFP’s top bets for the second quarter.

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#5 Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)

– Shares Owned by MFP Investors (as of March 31): 570,000

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $30.01 Million

MFP cut its stake in its largest holding in the Oil & Gas refining and marketing industry by 10% during the March quarter amid the stock registering gains of around 9%. However, Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)’s stock price continued its upward trajectory after the end of March taking year-to-date gains to 27%. While the first quarter loss of $1.72 per share managed to beat analyst expectations, revenues of $993 million missed the estimates. Both UBS and Credit Suisse downgraded the stock at the end of last month to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ and ‘Outperform’, respectively. An investor still upbeat about Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)’s future prospects is Paul Singer as his firm Elliott Management hiked its holding in the company by 6% to 18.8 million shares during the first quarter.

#4 Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX)

– Shares Owned by MFP Investors (as of March 31): 1.74 Million

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $32.73 Million

After being reduced by 13%, MFP’s holding in Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) represented 4.59% of its equity portfolio. The $30.6 billion medical equipment and technology company has seen its stock price surge by over 23% so far this year with a major boost coming last month after the company released its first-quarter financial results. Boston Scientific managed to deliver EPS of $0.28, which beat estimates by $0.04 and revenues of $1.96 billion were $50 million ahead of expectations. On top of that, the company also raised its guidance range for 2016 and now expects revenue of $8.075 billion to $8.225 billion. Samuel Isaly‘s healthcare-focused fund OrbiMed Advisors also cut its Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) holding by 8% during the first quarter to 22.48 million shares.

#3 Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB)

– Shares Owned by MFP Investors (as of March 31): 1.03 Million

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $44.88 Million

Let us move onto MFP’s stake in Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) that wasn’t changed during the first three months of this year and accounted for 6.3% of the hedge fund’s portfolio. The stock of the $4.66 billion entertainment production company has been on a tear this year posting 42% gains so far. Shares received a major boost at the end of April when Dolby reported revenue and non-GAAP EPS of $274 million and $0.82, respectively, for its fiscal second quarter. These numbers were  significantly ahead of consensus analyst estimates of $264 million  in revenues and earnings of $0.61 per share. The quarter marked the company’s growth in the mobile space with the inclusion of Dolby Audio in iOS. Moreover, Dolby Vision TVs, Dolby Vision content as well as Dolby Cinema locations around the world all expanded during this period. Jim Simons‘ quant fund Renaissance Technologies increased its stake in Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) by 76% during the March quarter to about 696,000 shares.

#2 BMC Stock Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BMCH)

– Shares Owned by MFP Investors (as of March 31): 3.58 Million

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $59.48 Million

While MFP’s stake in the diversified lumber and building materials distributor that sells primarily to new construction and remodeling contractors remained the same during the quarter, GMT Capital appreciated its holding in BMC Stock Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BMCH) by 5% during the same period to about 812,400 shares. So far this year the stock price of the company, that is still in the integration phase after a merger with the Building Material Holdings Corporation that was completed in December last year, is up by over 15%. Shares slid by about 8% in mid-May and provided an attractive entry point as housing activity took a breather, but have now escalated even further up.

#1 Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)

– Shares Owned by MFP Investors (as of March 31): 1.85 Million

– Value of Holding (as of March 31): $59.85 Million

Finally, MFP’s largest equity holding was in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which also remained unchanged during the March trimester and represented about 8.5% of the fund’s portfolio. As streamlining efforts continue to take hold at the behemoth chip-maker, whose stock price has slid by more than 7% since the start of this year, the company announced late last month that it will be ending further investment in Atom chips for mobile devices. Previously, Intel had also announced job cuts to the tune of 12,000. Harris Associates initiated a position in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) during the first quarter with some 43.70 million shares.

Disclosure: None