Google Inc (GOOG) & The Rest Of This $400 Million Hedge Fund’s Top Picks

Thacker, Weber, and their team disclosed ownership of about 360,000 shares of Gildan Activewear Inc (USA) (NYSE:GIL), a $5.1 billion market cap manufacturer of athletic apparel. Revenue rose 8% in its most recent fiscal quarter compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year; earnings growth was much higher in percentage terms, but we don’t think the wide gap between the two figures is sustainable and so net income should increase more slowly going forward. Analyst expectations imply a forward P/E of 14.

B/E Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:BEAV) rounds out our list of Signpost’s top stock picks from the end of December 2012. The $6.7 billion market cap company manufactures a number of aircraft interior components including seats, oxygen systems, and food and beverage service systems. While the stock trades at 26 times trailing earnings, analysts are projecting large increases in EPS with the result being a forward P/E of only 15 an a five-year PEG ratio of 0.7. Growth numbers have indeed been decent recently, thought that multiple still looks high.

Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) looks like an interesting value prospect to us, and we’d encourage investors to do further research on the stock. The rest of the fund’s picks are more dependent on significantly improving their bottom lines. While we certainly wouldn’t rule those companies out- recent financials in each case do show good growth rates, and Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) in particular continues to have monster quarters- investors would have to develop confidence in analyst forecasts.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.