Selz Capital LCC is a New York-based hedge fund firm that currently manages an equity portfolio worth $580 million. Trading and investment advisory services are the main operations of the hedge fund, which operates under the guidance and supervision of founding partner Bernard Selz. The latest 13F filing of the fund for the reporting period of March 31 reveals that it holds a diversified portfolio, with assets fairly evenly distributed between multiple sectors. Among the leading sectors the fund invests in are the consumer discretionary, transportation, energy, and healthcare sectors, with 61 positions all told. As of the reporting period, the hedge fund’s holdings in Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) were among the top ten largest holdings within its portfolio, and we’ll look at these stocks in this article.
Why are we interested in the 13F filings of a select group of hedge funds? We use these filings to determine the top 15 small-cap stocks held by these elite funds based on 16 years of research that showed their top small-cap picks are much more profitable than both their large-cap stocks and the broader market as a whole. These small-cap stocks beat the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of nearly one percentage point per month in our backtests, which were conducted over the period of 1999 to 2012. Moreover, since the beginning of forward testing from August 2012, the strategy worked just as our research predicted, outperforming the market every year and returning 139% over the last 32 months, which is more than 80 percentage points higher than the returns of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) (see more details).
Selz Capital increased its position in Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) to an even 300,000 shares, a 50% increase from the end of 2014. The stock-picking professionals at Selz Capital made the right decision when investing in Gilead, with shares up by more than 35% since the majority of their investment was made, and they still feel strongly about the stock further strengthening their position. It’s been a while since Gilead Sciences Inc. reported its strong first quarter financial results, however the market seems to reflect the constantly increasing expectations for this company’s future. Gilead generated roughly $7.59 billion in total revenue during the first quarter, which was an increase of 3.82% quarter-over-quarter and 51.8% year-over-year. Selz Capital is only one of the many hedge funds that are bullish on Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). White Elm Capital and Healthinvest Partners AB also hold huge stakes in the company.
Selz Capital purchased a new 550,000 share stake in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) during the first quarter, which is valued at $24.44 million as of March 31. Even though it might seem that this move did not come at the right time as the shares of Yahoo dropped by more than 7% on Tuesday, short-term fluctuations are not overly concerning to medium- and long-term investors like Selz Capital. The dip was caused by rumors about the U.S government’s possible reexamination of a rule related to corporate spin-offs that could potentially affect Yahoo’s intended spin-off of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA). Among the hedge funds that are bullish on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Brian J. Higgins increased his fund’s already sizable stake in Yahoo! Inc. to 22.50 million convertible bonds, while Owl Creek Asset Management, led by Jeffrey Altman owns 10.39 million Yahoo shares.
Selz Capital increased its position in Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) to 673,100 shares, a 523% increase. The television broadcasting company beat Wall Street’s first quarter expectations for it by reaching a net income of $24.3 million and revenue of $504.77 million. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) has been performing relatively well since the beginning of the year, achieving a hike of more than 11% in its share price. Some other reputable hedge funds, including Raystone Capital Partners and Glenn J. Krevlin‘s Glenhill Advisors are also bullish on Sinclair Broadcast Group, owning 4.35 million and 2.59 million shares respectively.
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