Levin Easterly Partners’ Latest Portfolio: Top 5 Stock Picks

1. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)

Levin Easterly Partners’ Stake Value: $29,886,000

Percentage of Levin Easterly Partners’ 13F Portfolio: 2.66%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders(Q1): 71

Investment banking juggernaut The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was Levin Easterly Partners’ top stock pick at the end of June despite the stock of the bank falling by more than 10% during that period. Other funds covered by us that were bullish on The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) at the end of June included John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments and Thomas E. Claugus’ GMT Capital, with both of these funds raising their stake in the bank by 12% and 63%, respectively, during Q2.

Of the 13 analysts who cover The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), 8 currently have a ‘Buy’ rating on the stock and the consensus price target on the stock among those 13 analysts is $413.92, which represents a potential upside of over 17% from where the stock is trading at present. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) Chairman & CEO, David Solomon, spoke with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s “Mad Money” show on July 16 and had this to say about the firm’s trading business and its leadership group:

“The trading, the trading business has always been core to the firm and it will always be core to the firm. What I’m, what I’m really excited about and and, you know, feel really great about is the leadership group and that division has really invested over the last four years and our client relationships. They’ve had a very, very targeted program of looking at the 100 most important clients in that business and making sure that our market share, our wallet share and the feedback we get from those clients is on a positive trajectory and improving and we’ve had real strides in the context of our wallet share with those top 100 clients, which really are the most significant institutions that we deal with in our market business. Sure there are lots of others but that top 100 is very important. So we’ve been committed to this business. I think it’s one of the great things that that Lloyd did. He was always steadfast in his commitment to this business. I’m steadfast in my commitment to this business. It served our clients well. We’ve got a great global footprint and we’re going to continue to make sure we’re in a position to serve our clients across all markets.”

You can also look at  10 Best Technology Stocks to Buy According to Ian Simm’s Impax Management and 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Thomas Bailard’s Hedge Fund

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