Christian Leone Trims Exposure to Top Picks, Buys Apple, Sells Yahoo

New York-based Luxor Capital Group, managed by Christian Leone, is a fund with a balance structure, which has an equity portfolio worth $3.79 billion as of June 30. The fund mostly invests in equity and fixed income investments across the world and it uses a value-based approach, but also has a knack of picking distressed companies at cheaper price. Let’s take a closer look at Luxor’s top picks at the end of June, as well as a couple of significant moves the fund made during the second quarter.

More specifically, the stocks that we are going to discuss are GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB), IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC), BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).

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GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB)

– Shares Owned by Luxor Capital Group (as of June 30): 4.54 million

– Value of Luxor Capital Group’s holding (as of June 30): $141.07 million

Luxor Capital Group reduced its stake in online and mobile food ordering company GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB) to 4.54 million shares from 5.58 million shares during the second quarter. Last month, GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB)’s Seamless platform started turnkey delivery service in Manhattan. Diners are excited as they will be able to get quality food, wide choice, lower fees, and transparency, while hotels are getting more business and higher reach which should be a win-win situation. Among the funds we track, 25 funds have long position in GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB) worth $992.28 million in aggregate as of the end of June.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC)

– Shares Owned by Luxor Capital Group (as of June 30): 2.02 million

– Value of Luxor Capital Group’s holding (as of June 30): $113.70 million

Luxor Capital Group’s second top pick IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC),  in which the fund reduced its holding by 1.04 million shares to 2.02 million shares worth $113.70 million. For the second quarter, IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC) reported revenue of $745.4 million, missing estimates by $2.51 million, while EPS of $0.42 per share was below analysts’ expectations of $0.34 per share. Match Group, HomeAdvisor, and Video saw revenues increase by 21%, 38%, and 16% on the year to $301.1 million, $130.2 million, and $47.3 million, respectively, while Publishing and Applications segments registered 45% and 25% drop in revenues to $85.3 million and $143.2 million, respectively. Out of the total funds tracked by our team, 35 funds were long in IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IAC) at the end of June, down from 36 a quarter earlier.

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

– Shares Owned by Luxor Capital Group (as of June 30): 2.50 million

– Value of Luxor Capital Group’s holding (as of June 30): $109.71 million

Luxor Capital Group’s position in BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) remained unchanged during the second quarter. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)’s results for the second quarter did not meet Wall Street estimates, as the company’s revenue of $250.33 million was $2.9 million lower than expected, while EPS of $0.56 per share was below the consensus estimate of $0.57. The comparable restaurant sales fell by 0.2%. At the end of June, 20 funds from our database held shares of BJ’s Restaurants with a total value of $243.95 million, compared to 21 funds and $129.87 million, respectively, a quarter earlier.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

– Shares Owned by Luxor Capital Group (as of June 30): 101,775

– Value of Luxor Capital Group’s holding (as of June 30): $9.73 million

Christian Leone’s fund initiated a stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the second quarter. The iPhone maker has been making headlines lately amid the European Commission’s ruling over its taxes in Ireland and the release of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which, despite some drawbacks, seem to be a success, as carriers have recently announced that preorders are some of the highest in history. Among the funds we track, 116 funds held shares of Apple at the end of June, down from 152 funds a quarter earlier.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)

Luxor Capital Group sold its entire stake of 7.15 million shares of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) it had reported as of the end of March during the second quarter. The move might have been a bit rash as in July, Verizon announced the acquisition of Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion. However, the deal does not include Yahoo’s investments in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) and Yahoo Japan. Following the acquisition, Yahoo’s core business, which includes advertising, content, search, and mobile activities will be combined with AOL, which Verizon had bought last year. However, Luxor wasn’t the only stock that decided to dump Yahoo, as the number of funds from our database bullish on the company slid to 81 from 97 between April and June.

Disclosure: None