Mark Stupfel’s Cortex Capital Management has filed its 13F with the SEC for the reporting period of March 31. The financial advisory firm is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas and has an equity portfolio of $86.37 million as of the reporting period. The fund manager is primarily invested in the finance, consumer discretionary, healthcare, and information technology sectors. Stupfel added seven new stocks to his portfolio during the first quarter, including Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) and Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS), and we’ll look at these top new picks of his in this article.
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Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is the biggest new position initiated by the fund manager during the first quarter of 2015. He owns 180,000 shares of the controversial, direct-selling nutrition company, with a market value of $7.70 million, which is a somewhat surprising addition to his portfolio given the recent controversies surrounding it. According to prominent activist investor Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is a pyramid scheme company that makes money by adding more members rather than selling products. He has maintained short bets in excess of $1 billion against the company. Despite the accusations of Ackman, Herbalife has its fair share of supporters in addition to Stupfel, including Carl Icahn of Icahn Capital LP and George Soros. Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) reported its first quarter 2015 financial results last week with earnings per share of $1.29, which was lower than its earnings per share of $1.50 year-over-year. Icahn Capital, Soros Fund Management, and East Side Capital are among the major investors of Herbalife Ltd.
Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) is the second largest new addition to the equity portfolio of Cortex Capital Management. The advisory firm owns 500,000 shares of the company with a market value of $1.72 million as of the reporting period. Working primarily in advanced laser display technologies, Microvision has a current market cap of $140.24 million. The shares of Microvision have jumped in excess of 70% year-to-date. Unsurprisingly it has been an excellent year for the technology firm as the company landed a Fortune Global 100 Electronics Company as its client and received an $8 million upfront payment from it in March, along with a multi-year contract. While the client’s name was initially withheld by Microvision, CEO Alexander Tokman confirmed during a conference call to discuss his company’s latest earnings report that the client is Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE). Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) reported revenue of $0.9 million in its first quarter ending on March 31, 2015, which was lower than its first quarter 2014 revenue of $1.2 million. Some of the top investors of Microvision include Peak6 Capital Management and Citadel Investment Group.
New Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSEMKT:NGD) is another new addition to the equity portfolio of Stupfel. The current position of the investment manager includes 500,000 shares of the company with a market value of $1.70 million. The shares of the gold mining company are 18.66% lower on a year-to-date basis. The Canadian gold miner reported its first quarter 2015 financial results on April 29, posting an adjusted net loss of $5 million. The gold digger hasn’t been able to perform up to market expectations primarily because of increasing AISC (all-in sustaining costs) of gold. The net revenue of the firm dropped to $168.9 million from $190.5 million year-over-year. Despite its lower-than-expected quarterly performance, New Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSEMKT:NGD) is one of the hottest gold stocks on the market. First Eagle Investment Management, Blue Mountain Capital, and Steadfast Capital Management are among the bullish investors of New Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSEMKT:NGD).
Lastly, Cortex Capital Management initiated a new position in Neff Corp (NYSE:NEFF) during the first quarter. Mark Stupfel’s advisory firm holds 30,000 shares of the company with a market value of $316,000. The shares of the equipment rental company have offered returns of 2.57% year-to-date. Neff Corp reported first quarter revenue of $84.1 million an 8.2% increase year-over-year. The equipment service company beat earnings per share expectations by nearly 50% at $0.16, with estimates predicting $0.11. Some of the primary investors of Neff Corp (NYSE:NEFF) include Zweig Dimenna Partners, Samlyn Capital, and Magnetar Capital.
Cortex Capital Management is one of more than 700 hedge funds that we track in our database, whose equity portfolios we collate quarterly as part of our small-cap strategy. Even though most smaller investors believe that tracking 13F filings is a fruitless endeavor because they are filed with a delay of a maximum of 45 days after the end of a calendar quarter, the results of our research prove that is not the case. To be on the safe side, we used a delay of 60 days in our backtests that involved the 13F filings of funds between 1999 and 2012 and we still managed to gain an annual alpha in the double digits. Moreover, since the official launch of our strategy in August 2012, our small-cap strategy has obtained returns of more than 137%, beating the S&P 500 Total Return Index by 82 percentage points (see the details).
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