Benjamin A Smith’s Laurion Capital Management has filed its 13F with the SEC for the second quarter of 2015, in which it disclosed an equity portfolio of $10.85 billion, which is more than double compared to the previous quarter. The investment manager has its primary investments in information technology, healthcare, and consumer discretionary sector. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Weyerhaeuser Co (NYSE:WY) are among the top three equity investment of the firm. Moreover, Qualcomm has replaced CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) as the top pick of Laurion, after the investor sold its entire stake in CBS during the second quarter. Previously, Laurion held around 1.25 million shares of CBS, but sold them all amid an 8% decline of the stock during the April – June period.
Laurion was founded in 2005 and follows a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis as its investment principles. Benjamin Smith worked in the equity derivatives division of JPMorgan in New York as a managing director and left the company along with Sheehan Maduraperuma to start Laurion Capital Management.
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QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) represents Laurion’s largest holding, which contains 2.20 million shares valued at $137.80 million. The position jumped to the top of the list after the fund raised its investment in the chipmaker by 898% during the second quarter. Meanwhile, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s stock has declined by 17% year-to-date, fueled by some dismal results for the third quarter of fiscal 2015, among other things. Its revenue was down 14% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, whereas its earnings per share declined by 44% to $0.73. The firm pinned lower revenues to a weaker PC Market throughout the year and lowered its guidance for the fourth quarter to between $4.7 billion and $5.7 billion. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has been trying to revamp its growth by entering into new industries, and has acquired connected home chipmaker Ikanos Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:IKAN) for $47 million. In the midst of these changes, Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners is another catalyst affecting the management and he has been pushing for the separation of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and Qualcomm Technology Licensing arms. JANA owns 28.81 million shares of Qualcomm as of the end of June (it’s the fund’s largest holding), followed by Ken Fisher‘sFisher Asset Management which disclosed holding 9.45 million shares in its latest 13F for the second quarter.
Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) represents the second-largest position of Laurion Capital, containing 1.23 million shares valued at $110.51 million, more than double over the quarter. Yum has had a good year so far, marked by strong results for the second quarter. The fast-food company is planning to expand its operations in Turkey by adding 400 KFC restaurants in the country over the next five years. Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) is expecting KFC sales in Turkey to grow by around 10%, which would make it one of the fastest-growing markets after Russia. Among the hedge funds that have filed their 13Fs for the second quarter of 2015, Columbus Circle Investors, led by Donald Chiboucis, disclosed ownership of 1.11 million shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) with a value of $99.86 million.
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Laurion Capital also owns a significant stake in Weyerhaeuser Co (NYSE:WY) with 2.27 million shares valued at $71.37 million. Moreover, Laurion holds ‘Put’ options underlying around 2.70 million shares of the company. Weyerhaeuser Co (NYSE:WY) owns timberlands extending in more than seven million acres in the United State along with additional timberlands in Canada managed through long-term licenses. The real estate investment trust reported strong financial results for the second quarter with earnings per share of $0.26 exceeding expectations of $0.20, although its revenue fell by 8.0% on the year to $1.81 billion. Fisher Asset Management had 404,393 shares of Weyerhaeuser Co (NYSE:WY) valued at $12.76 million at the end of the second quarter.
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