Billionaire Michael Price’s Best Ideas for 2016

Let’s now refocus our attention on four bullish moves made by MFP Investors LLC during the final quarter of 2015. To begin with, the New York-based hedge fund added a 3.58 million-share position in BMC Stock Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:STCK) to its portfolio during the December quarter, which was worth $59.94 million and represented the fund’s second-largest equity holding. In early December 2015, Stock Building Supply Holdings and building materials provider Building Materials Holding Corp merged to create a leading construction materials supplier in the nation called BMC Stock Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:STCK). The newly-combined entity had $2.6 billion in pro forma revenue in 2014 and anticipates run-rate cost synergies of $20 million-to-$25 million within 12 months from the completion of the merger and $30 million-to-$40 million within 24 months. To get a general idea of how material these cost synergies are, they account for roughly 1.5% of combined sales. The shares of the combined company are 13% in the red year-to-date. D.E. Shaw & Co. L.P., founded by David E. Shaw, reported ownership of 2.23 million shares of BMC Stock Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:STCK) through the recent 13F filing period.

Billionaire Michael Price upped his position in FMC Technologies Inc. (NYSE:FTI) by 445,000 shares during the October-to-December period, ending the quarter with 635,000 shares valued at $21.46 million. The provider of technologies and services to the oil and gas industry has been severely impacted by the decline in crude oil prices, with its shares sliding by 36% over the past year. While the company serves as the market leader in subsea systems, most of its customers reduced their capital spending plans or delayed deepwater projects due to depressed commodity prices. Similarly, FMC Technologies Inc. (NYSE:FTI)’s surface technologies businesses have been impacted by decreased land activity and lower rig counts in North America. The company’s full-year 2015 net revenue declined to $6.36 billion from $7.94 billion in 2014. Indeed, the future financial performance of the energy services provider is highly dependent on crude oil prices, but the stock could represent an attractive long-term bet on a broader industry rebound. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC lifted its position in FMC Technologies Inc. (NYSE:FTI) by 1.45 million shares during the fourth quarter, to 7.80 million units.