Billionaires Are Piling Into These Five Stocks

#3 Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS)

– Billionaires with long positions (as of March 31): 12

– Aggregate value of billionaires’ holdings (as of March 31): $786 million

Looking at the 17% rise that Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS)’s stock has seen in the second quarter and the 31% year-to-date gain, it seems that billionaire investors already had an inclination that the stock will be performing well. During the first quarter, the number of billionaire investors covered by us with long positions in the financial services technology company rose by five and the aggregate value of their holdings in it swelled by 80%. Funds that initiated a stake in the company during that period included billionaire Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital, which purchased slightly over 1 million shares. On July 26, Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) reported its results for the second quarter, declaring EPS of $0.90, which topped the estimates of $0.87, while revenue of $2.31 billion missed analysts’ expectations by $20 million.

#2 Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR)

– Billionaires with long positions (as of March 31): 8

– Aggregate value of billionaires’ holdings (as of March 31): $331.1 million

Moving on, the ownership of Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR) among billionaire investors tracked by our team rose by six and the aggregate value of their holdings in it saw an almost six-fold increase during the first quarter. Nevertheless, there were also a few billionaire-led hedge funds like Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital that sold their entire stake in the company during that period.  Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR)’s stock ended the first quarter with a decent gain of 13.75%, but has given up most of those gains and is currently less than 3% in the green year-to-date. For the second quarter, Progressive Corp posted in-line EPS of $0.33, while its revenue of $5.93 billion went up by 13% on the year and topped estimates by around $180 million.

#1 AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

– Billionaires with long positions (as of March 31): 8

– Aggregate value of billionaires’ holdings (as of March 31): $385.24 million

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) was the stock that saw the kargest increase in its popularity during the first quarter among billionaire investors tracked by us with the number of funds with long positions increasing seven and the aggregate value of their holdings surged by 178%. Interestingly, it is also the only stock in this list that is trading in the red for 2016, down by 12.56% year-to-date. A large part of the decline it has seen this year came after the company reported lower-than-expected revenue for the first quarter at the end of April.  Billionaire Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors was one of the hedge funds that lowered its stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) during the first quarter, by 3% to 2.52 million shares.

Disclosure: None