Columbus Circle Investors’ Boldest Q2 Moves

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD)

– Shares Owned by Columbus Circle Investors (as of June 30): 522,843

– Value of Columbus Circle Investors’ Holding (as of June 30): $79.05 Million

Moving on, Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) was another stock in which Columbus Circle Investors boosted its stake significantly during the second quarter, by 689%. Shares of the independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company have appreciated by 28.21% so far in 2016, owing largely to the revival in energy commodity prices. For its second quarter, the company reported a loss of $0.22 per share on revenue of $786 million, a mixed performance in light of analysts’ estimates of a loss of $0.34 per share on revenue of $805.59 million. According to analysts who track the company, the margin available to Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) for capital expenditure can grow to $19.18 per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) in the next few years, from $9.46 at present, if the company’s production at the Permian Basin continues to grow at 32.5% per annum. On August 2, analysts at Barclays upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ and also raised their price target on it to $175 from $152. Russell Lucas‘ Lucas Capital Management lowered its stake in Pioneer by 46% to 9,140 shares during the second quarter.

Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA)

– Shares Owned by Columbus Circle Investors (as of June 30): 409,650

– Value of Columbus Circle Investors’ Holding (as of June 30): $86.82 Million

Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA) has continued its multi-year bull run this year, rising by over 10% so far in 2016. Over the last five years the stock has delivered greater than 300% returns and is currently trading close to its lifetime high of $224.15, a day after the release of its fiscal year 2016 third quarter earnings release on July 27. Though the company managed to beat analysts’ estimates of EPS of $1.74 on revenue of $696.46 million by declaring EPS of $1.78 on revenue of $698.90 million, several analysts are concerned about the moderate sales growth that the company has been exhibiting over the past few quarters, as well as its non-existent margin growth. Taking those factors into account, some analysts feel that trading at a forward P/E of 27.59 and a price-to-sales multiple of 1.88 makes Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA)’s stock overvalued at the moment. While Columbus Circle Investors made a ten-fold increase to its stake in the company during the second quarter, Charles Paquelet‘s Skylands Capital lowered its stake in the stock by 15% to 17,000 shares during the same period.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

– Shares Owned by Columbus Circle Investors (as of June 30): 668,109

– Value of Columbus Circle Investors’ Holding (as of June 30): $98.72 Million

The 363% increase that Columbus Circle Investors made to its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) during the second quarter helped the position jump from the 118th-most valuable spot in the fund’s equity portfolio at the end of March to the 25th-most valuable at the end of June. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)’s stock has also performed well this year, rising by 9.51% in 2016, and is currently trading very close to its lifetime high of $160.68. The company reported its second quarter earnings on July 28, declaring EPS of $2.03 on revenue of $4.54 billion for the quarter. For the same quarter of the previous year, Thermo Fisher pulled in EPS of $1.84 on revenue of $4.27 billion. The stock currently sports an average rating of ‘Buy’ and an average price target of $171.13 from the 19 leading analysts and research firms on Wall Street who track it. Billionaire Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital lowered its stake in Thermo Fisher by 40% to 3.6 million shares during the second quarter.

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