Hedge Funds Are Hoarding Shares of These 5 Large-Caps

Next up is Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), which saw a 5.6% decline in hedge fund interest over the October-to-December period. However, the stock was still very popular, counting the backing of 83 funds among those we track, which owned 36.3% of its shares. Among them is Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, which held 16.59 million shares of the company on December 31. Mr. Ackman then increased his stake to 30.71 million shares by February 5, taking advantage of the depressed stock price. Shares of Valeant are down by more than 36% year-to-date. After some delays, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) recently announced that on March 15 it would finally be reporting its fourth quarter results and providing investors an update on its financial guidance. However, it should be noted that these figures will still be unaudited.

Back to companies that saw hedge fund support surge over the fourth quarter, there’s Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC), which witnessed a 7.1% increase in fund backers, to 60. The aggregate stakes, worth about $26.2 billion as of December 31, accounted for 29.7% of the company’s shares. Once again, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway held the largest stake in the company on December 31, comprised of shared dispositive power of 325.44 million shares and aggregate ownership of 618.98 million shares in conjunction with 3G Capital.

Last Monday, Susquehanna analyst Pablo Zuanic reiterated his ‘Positive’ rating on shares of Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC), but trimmed his price target on them to $93 from $104. Despite the ‘Positive’ rating and the company’s recent earnings and revenue beat, the experts noted that the company’s poor disclosure had clouded visibility of its underlying performance, turning it into “too much of a black box.” Shares of Kraft Heinz are up by about 6% year-to-date.

Finally, there’s Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), which counted 103 fund supporters on December 31, down from 107 on September 30. The value of these holdings also declined to $14.95 billion from $16.15 billion, even though the stock gained 3.47% over the period. These holdings still accounted for 28.5% of the company’s shares however. A notable shareholder is Eric W. Mandelblatt’s Soroban Capital Partners, which disclosed ownership of 8.41 million shares of the company as of the end of 2015.

Shares of Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) continued to surge over the first quarter of 2016, having returned almost 5% while the S&P 500 lost 2.5%. Much of these gains were probably driven by the anticipation surrounding the Charter merger discussed on the prior page. The stock is now trading very close to its all-time highs, as it has been surging since it reported strong results on January 28; since that date, shares have gained about 10.8%.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.