With the data from the latest round of 13F filings now gathered and processed, we’ve identified five stocks that received a large influx of cash in the second quarter from the hedge funds we track. The stocks are Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), and Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), and we’ll take a look at the action on each of them in this article.
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Let’s start with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which gained ground on both Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in terms of the most popular stocks among the hedge funds we track. While the top two both dipped in terms of fund ownership, collectively, four more funds added Facebook to their portfolios in the second quarter, lifting the total to 133. More relevant to this article, the value of shares held by those funds also increased greatly, to $8.86 billion from $7.09 billion. As shares of Facebook were only up by about 4% in the second quarter, hedge funds poured about $1.5 billion of their assets into the stock. As is often the case, the collective hedge fund sentiment has proven prophetic, as shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have gained over 11% in the third quarter. The most bullish investor in the second quarter among those we track was Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors, which added 3.23 million shares to its holding, lifting it to 5.07 million shares as of June 30, valued at $435 million.
Let’s move on to AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), which completed the acquisition of Pharmacyclics for $21 billion on May 26. While the deal propelled the stock upwards by over 14% during the second quarter, the value of shares held by funds we track surged by 86% to $7.11 billion. While one could add the caveat that Pharmacyclics’ shareholders could elect to receive AbbVie shares instead of cash as part of the acquisition, which helped prop up the AbbVie ownership, doing so is ultimately no different than choosing to invest money in AbbVie. Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors, one of the top shareholders of Pharmacyclics which profited massively from the deal, elected to do just that, converting some of its former holding into a new position of 14.37 million shares of AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) worth over $965 million. The firm’s Pharmacyclics position had been worth $2.31 billion on March 31.
Let’s check out salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) next, which was likely buoyed during the second quarter by the numerous takeover rumors swirling around it at that time, which cited Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) as potential suitors. The number of hedge funds we track with salesforce positions leapt to 68 from 46, while the value of their holdings more than doubled to $1.85 billion from $903 million. salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were up by about 4% during the second quarter. While a takeover has yet to happen, the investment has not been in vain nonetheless, as shares have gained another 4% so far in the third quarter. Simon Sadler‘s Segantii Capital was among the funds counting salesforce as a favorite new stock, opening a position during the second quarter that held 264,874 shares on June 30, accounting for 16.58% of its public equity portfolio.
Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), a prominent new holding of Jeffrey Smith’s, also makes an appearance on our list, with the value of shares held by funds we track increasing by just under $1 billion to $2.20 billion during the second quarter. Citadel Advisors and Smith’s Starboard Value accounted for over 40% of that with their new positions of 3.21 million shares and 2.92 million shares respectively. Smith stated in early May that Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M)’s real estate holdings were being vastly undervalued by the market and were almost single-handedly worth the company’s market cap. Macy’s shares were up by less than 4% in the second quarter but have yet to live up to Smith’s billing, sliding by over 7% in the third quarter.
Lastly we come to Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), in which hedge fund ownership in terms of value of holdings increased by 172% to $4.06 billion, during a quarter in which shares rose by just over 14%. The restaurant holding company received a massive investment from activist Keith Meister during the second quarter, as he added over 14.43 million shares to his position. Meister appeared to be on to something, as Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) beat estimates for its second quarter bottom line, though shares have declined by over 6% in the third quarter. Billionaire Dan Loeb is another shareholder with a notable position in Yum! Brands, of 3.56 million shares as of June 30.
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