Billionaire Paul Singer’s Top Picks and New Bets for Q2

Largest Equity Holdings

#3 Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of March 31): 77.6 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $743.41 million

After initiating a stake in Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) during the fourth quarter, Elliott Management proceeded to boost it by 16% during the first quarter. The fund launched an activist campaign against the company upon initiating its stake, to which Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) has been amenable. On February 1, the company announced that it would appoint to its board the three members nominated by Elliott, which were Ulrich Schmidt, John Plant, and Sean Mahoney. The company is currently engaged in spinning off its aerospace and auto industry alloy-manufacturing unit into an independent publicly-traded company called ‘Arconic’. Following the spin-off, the three Elliott nominees will also be added to the board of the new company. Didric Cederholm’s Lion Point upped its stake in Alcoa by 15% to 3.9 million shares during the first quarter.

#2 Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of March 31): 18.8 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $990 million

Amid a 9% rise in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)’s stock during the first quarter, Elliott Management increased its stake in the company by 6%. Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) has been one of the best-performing stocks in Elliott Management’s equity portfolio this year, trading with 21.63% year-to-date gains. Despite that, most analysts who track the stock feel that it still has moderate upside. The stock currently sports an average rating of ‘Overweight’ and an average price target of $61.92 from the 25 leading analysts and research houses on the Street who follow the stock, which represents upside of about 6.7%. Hedge funds that significantly boosted their stake in the company during the first quarter included Todd J. Kantor’s Encompass Capital Advisors, which increased its holding in the company by 75% to 746,500 shares.

#1 EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of March 31): 42 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $1.12 billion

Though Elliott Management trimmed its stake in EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) by 231,000 shares during the first quarter, the company continued to remain the fund’s largest equity holding. With the date of completion of Dell’s acquisition of the company approaching fast, shares of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) have seen significant appreciation this month and are currently trading up by 7.7% year-to-date. For its first quarter, EMC Corporation reported EPS of $0.31 on revenue of $5.50 billion, which were below analysts’ estimates of EPS of $0.33 on revenue of $5.64 billion. On May 16, the company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.115 per share, which represents a current annual dividend yield of 1.66%. Billionaire Seth Klarman‘s Baupost Group upped its stake in the company by 78% to 51.85 million shares during the first quarter.

Disclosure: None