Have Billionaires Made the Right Call Betting on These Stocks?

#3 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 21

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $3.6 billion

Though the ownership of Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) among billionaire investors that we track increased by three during the fourth quarter, their holdings in the company during the same period remained nearly constant. Notable investors that increased their stakes in the company during that period included billionaire Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management, which brought its holding up by 31% to 3.48 million shares. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s stock continued its upward journey during the first quarter and gained 9%. On April 6, the company launched a streaming video broadcast service called ‘Facebook Live’, which analysts see as another move by the company to reinforce its position as the go-to place on the Internet. On April 8, online digital news magazine Digiday published a report highlighting the research done by an analytics company which showed that Facebook’s traffic across clients saw a drop of 20% during the January-March period. If this research turns out to be accurate, it can have a notable impact on the company’s first quarter results. Currently the Street is expecting  Facebook to deliver EPS of $0.62 on revenue of $5.25 billion during the quarter, compared to EPS of $0.42 on revenue of $3.54 billion that it reported for the same quarter last year.

#2 Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 23

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $5.05 billion

Moving on, the number of billionaire investors covered by us with long positions in Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) remained constant during the fourth quarter, however, the aggregate value of their holdings in the company saw a marginal increase of 3.65% during the same period. Billionaire John Paulson‘s Paulson & Co. reduced its holding in the company by 28% to 5.87 million shares during the last three months of 2015. Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)’s stock registered significant gains in March after it started becoming clear that the company’s merger with Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) will get approved. Owing largely to those gains, the stock ended the first quarter up by 10.65%. Though there were rumors last month that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was all set to issue a draft order approving the deal, the federal agency is yet to do so. On March 19, analysts at Buckingham Research reiterated their ‘Hold’ rating on Time Warner Cable’s stock, but upped their price target to $219 from $187, which represents a potential upside of 7% from the stock’s current trading price.

#1 Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN)

– Billionaires with Long Positions (as of December 31): 29

– Value of Billionaires’ Holdings (as of December 31): $9.53 billion

Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN) was the most popular stock among billionaire investors from our database at the beginning of 2016. However, the aggregate value of their position was down by 11.67% over the quarter, despite the fact that the number of funds went up by three. Among the investors that substantially increased their stake in the company during the fourth quarter was billionaire Dan Loeb‘s Third Point, which increased its holding by 48% to 5.4 million shares. Among the stocks covered in this list, Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN) was the worst performer during the first quarter, ending the quarter down by 14.2%. The recent mutual decision of Pfizer and Allergan to terminate their merger deal has caused Allergan’s stock to fall even further as it now trades down by over 25% year-to-date. Though Allergan has suffered a setback with the deal getting terminated, its CEO, Brent Saunders, is confident about the company’s future prospects. In a press release issued by the company on April 6, Mr Saunders stated:

“While we are disappointed that the Pfizer transaction will no longer move forward, Allergan is poised to deliver strong, sustainable growth built of a set of powerful attributes. Our pipeline is one of the strongest in the industry, loaded with 70 mid-to-late-stage programs, including 14 expected approvals and 16 regulatory submissions in 2016 alone.”

Disclosure: None