GMT Capital was founded in 1990 to serve as the manager for a variety of long-term oriented funds. The network of funds is managed by Thomas Claugus, an MBA from Harvard Business School and a former employee of Rohm and Haas Company. According to the most recent 13F filing, GMT Capital holds an equity portfolio worth $3.82 billion as of the end of June. In this article we are going to review GMT Capital’s largest holdings, represented by Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) and Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG).
We pay attention to hedge funds’ moves because our research has shown that hedge funds are extremely talented at picking stocks on the long side of their portfolios. It is true that hedge fund investors have been underperforming the market in recent years. However, this was mainly because hedge funds’ short stock picks lost a ton of money during the bull market that started in March 2009. Hedge fund investors also paid an arm and a leg for the services that they received. We have been tracking the performance of hedge funds’ 15 most popular stock picks in real time since the end of August 2012. These stocks have returned 123.1% since then and outperformed the S&P 500 Index by around 66.5 percentage points (see more details here). That’s why we believe it is important to pay attention to hedge fund sentiment; we also don’t like paying huge fees.
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The first in line is Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), in which GMT Capital owns some 5.40 million shares valued at $388.31 million as of June 30. Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) is a $10.11 billion company engaged in the processing of chemical raw materials. So far this year, the stock has appreciated by 9.94% and managed to reach an all-time high at the beginning of July. However, since then it has been mostly going down as the company released the second quarter earnings report, posting revenue of $1.48 billion, 3.7% below the estimate. As of March 31, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group follows GMT Capital in the list of the company’s shareholders with mere 455,529 shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) worth $25.45 million.
After a 3% cut in its stake in United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) during the second quarter, GMT Capital ended up with 6.77 million shares, valued at $358.99 million. United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) currently holds the status of the third largest domestic airline with some 15% shares of the US market, and the fourth largest airline company globally in terms of the total amount of passengers. Over the second quarter the stock of the company went down by 21.17% and since then it has already recovered by some 6.35%. Amid the recent drop in price, combined with a positive earnings report for the second quarter, Deutsche Bank upgraded the United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL)’s rating to ‘Buy’ from Hold with the price target of $72. According to our extensive database, which covers over 700 hedge funds, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management was among the top shareholders of United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) at the end of March, with 5.07 million shares at $340.93 million.
Lastly, GMT Capital kept its position in Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) unchanged over the quarter at 15.76 million shares, worth $229.70 million. The analysts’ average target price for the $2.08 billion semiconductor manufacturer stands at $16.8 per share. It looks like the stock might reach this target, especially if the company proceeds with the same pace: a couple of days ago, it posted its financial results for the second quarter, which beat both top and bottom line estimates. The revenue amounted to $280.71 million, topping the consensus by $7.61 million, and the EPS came 20% above the estimate of $0.2 per share. Blue Harbour Group, led by Clifton S. Robbins, held around 5.33 million shares of Entegris Inc (NASDAQ:ENTG) at $72.99 million at the end of the first quarter.
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