Nelson Peltz Remains Supremely Confident in Top Stock Picks Du Pont (DD), SYSCO (SYY), More

Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management is one of the best-known activist hedge funds in the world, managing about $13.8 billion in assets. In its latest 13F filing, the firm disclosed a public equity portfolio valued at $10.23 billion as of September 30. This highly concentrated portfolio, which included only seven stocks, was focused on consumer discretionary companies (which accounted for 42% of the portfolio’s total value) and industrials (30%). The positions were little changed over the third quarter, so in this article we’ll take a look at the fund’s top stakes and at their performance over the second-half of the year.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund Management (as of September 30): 17.45 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $1.16 Billion

Let’s start with E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), in which Trian trimmed its position by 9% over the third quarter. Nonetheless, the firm remained the largest hedge fund shareholder of the stock in our database as of September 30, trailed by Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management, which held 7.8 million shares at the end of the third quarter. Since the third quarter ended, shares of E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) have gained 5.75%, helped by speculation surrounding its merger with Dow Chemical Co (NYSE:DOW) and by its third-quarter results. In late-October, the company posted EPS of $0.34 on revenue of $4.92 billion, beating the Street’s consensus estimates by $0.14 and $60 million, respectively.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE:BK)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund Management (as of September 30): 32.37 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $1.29 Billion

Next up is Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE:BK). After acquiring 152,027 shares during the third quarter, Trian also remained the largest shareholder of this stock on September 30 among the investors that we track. Also long the stock was Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, with 21.13 million shares, or about $842.9 million in stock.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE:BK) gained almost 5% over the July-to-September period, and has managed far greater returns in the current quarter, spiking by more than 20%, helped by strong results and speculation about the timing of an interest rate hike. A few weeks ago, the bank reported third-quarter EPS of $0.90 on revenue of $3.94 billion, besting analysts’ expectations by $0.09 and $80 million, correspondingly.

We’ll check out three more of the fund’s conviction stock picks on the next page.

Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund Management (as of September 30): 48.03 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $2.1 Billion

In the lowest step of Trian’s third-quarter podium was Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), a position that remained unchanged over the three-month period ended September 30. Yet again, Peltz’s fund was the largest investor among those we track, followed by Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, which disclosed ownership of 22.94 million shares as of September 30, valued at more than $1 billion. Shares of Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) are mostly flat quarter-to-date, however, the stock experienced some volatility in early-November on the back of a report that indicated that 3G Capital was raising as much as $10 billion as it prepares for another acquisition, with speculation suggesting that it could target Mondelez.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund Management (as of September 30): 72.62 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $2.15 Billion

The second-most valuable in Peltz’s list going into the fourth quarter was General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which fell from the top spot after the fund cut its stake by 2% over the third quarter, while the stock tumbled by more than 3% during that time. Still, no other hedge fund in our database held such a large stake in the company. Having said this, other notable positions included those of Harris Associates (37.1 million shares) and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management (31.45 million shares).

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has been in rebound mode since the fourth quarter started, having already posted returns of more than 5.15%. On Tuesday, the stock, and that of Eni SpA (ADR) (NYSE:E), surged slightly, after the companies announced that they had signed a framework agreement for the joint development of large-scale renewable energy ventures and other hybrid projects focused on energy efficiency.

SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)

– Shares Owned by Trian Fund Management (as of September 30): 43.96 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $2.15 Billion

Finally, there’s SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), which jumped to the top spot in Trian’s portfolio, even though the stock lost 2.4% in the third quarter. Other notable investors included Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, with 14.29 million shares, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technlogies, which owned 3.86 million shares worth $189 million on September 30. Since the fourth quarter started, SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)’s stock has risen by more than 10.75%. Most of the gains came after the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report was released, which included EPS of $0.67 and revenue of $14 billion, which beat the Street’s consensus targets by $0.09 and $120 million respectively.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.