Just How Good Were These Hedge Fund Managers’ Investment Ideas From The 2017 Sohn Conference

As mentioned previously, billionaire Bill Ackman was also present at the Sohn Conference, where he made a case for one of Pershing Square’s long term investments – Howard Hughes Corp (NYSE:HHC). Ackman stated his belief that the real estate company was greatly positioned to thrive going forward, pointing to its portfolio of strong development projects from New York to Hawaii. “I think this is one of the most attractive times in the history of the company to invest,” commented Ackman. Although after the presentation the stock oscillated between $120 and $130 for the remainder of 2017, it finally picked up steam this month and has ended Tuesday’s session at $136.87 per share, up by roughly 8% since Ackman’s presentation.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square held a little over 4.7 million shares of Howard Hughes Corp (NYSE:HHC) at the end of 2017, but has sold 2.5 million shares in January. As of the latest 13D filing, the fund holds roughly 2.2 million shares and has further economic exposure to another 5.4 million shares through swaps. Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management is not far behind, as it holds 2.45 million shares of Howard Hughes according to its latest 13F filing.

Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital Management was bullish on several post-merger companies: FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC), IQVIA Holdings Inc (NYSE:IQV) and DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC). DXC Technology was formed in 2017 when Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) spun-off its services unit and merged it with Computer Sciences Corporation. FMC had picked up one of the businesses DuPont had to divest in order to complete its merger with Dow Chemical, while Quintiles had merged with IMS Health and later changed its name to IQVIA Holdings. “A lot of stocks were left for dead because they were in regulatory purgatory, they were in Armageddon land and no one wanted to touch them. Those losers can become winners. Those winners have far to run,” said Robbins.

Robbins nailed them all. Since his presentation at the conference, FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC) shares have appreciated by more than 10%, IQVIA Holdings Inc (NYSE:IQV) rose by 25% and DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC) shares rallied 37%. Throughout 2017, Glenview Capital has been slowly cashing in on all three of these bets. According to its latest 13F filing, the fund still holds 6.9 million shares of DXC Technology, 8.57 million shares of IQVIA Holdings and 10.7 million shares of FMC. Among the most prominent hedge funds, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital holds 9.87 million shares of IQVIA Holdings Inc (NYSE:IQV) and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital is invested in DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC), having reported ownership of 3.45 million shares in its latest 13F filing.

Disclosure: none.