As outlined in a previous article, Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management has a history of delivering outstanding long-term performance to its clients. This is why tracking its moves can provide great investment ideas for individual investors. In this article I will look into the fund’s latest 13F filing, where it discloses its long equity positions as of the end of the third quarter of 2014. I am particularly interested in Mr. Sprott’s top bets, CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) and NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), so I will briefly analyze these positions in order to find out if the companies stand as alluring investment options.
Sprott Asset Management is a Toronto-based alternative asset manager. We can track its origins to Sprott Securities Ltd., a brokerage firm founded in 1981 by Eric Sprott, who still manages the fund. Sprott last disclosed an equity portfolio (for the third quarter of 2014) worth more than $1.88 billion, mainly focused on stocks from the financial sector, which account for almost 64% of its total equity portfolio. While its largest bet is placed on ETF options, its three other biggest long equity positions do not belong to the financial sector (as you might have already noticed).
CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), a $9.54 billion market cap IT and business consulting services provider, came in first. The company saw Sprott once again (same as in the previous quarter) augment its exposure over the quarter, this time by 9%. The fund now owns 1.05 million Class A shares, worth about $35.5 million.
This stake makes of Mr. Sprott the largest institutional shareholder (amongst those we track), in CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), trailed by Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, which declared holding 958,060 shares and 162,273 shares, respectively, by the end of the second quarter.
Second in this list is Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) a $443.69 million market cap company engaged in silver mining and related activities in Latin America, including exploration, extraction, and processing. The company was displaced from the first place in Sprott’s list, after the fund trimmed its exposure by 9% over the third quarter of the year. Still, its 8.2 million shares are worth more than $33.3 million, and make it, once again, the largest institutional shareholder in the company.
Another major fund betting on Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) is D. E. Shaw, which acknowledged holding 412,400 shares at the end of the second quarter.
Finally, there’s NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), which ascended one spot in this list, in relation to the previous quarter. This $17.27 billion market cap semiconductor company witnessed a slight decrease in Sprott’s stake over the third quarter. The fund now owns 476,440 shares of Common Stock, worth more than $32.6 million.
Another fund supporting NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) is James Dinan’s York Capital Management, which declared holding 4.96 million shares, worth about $328 million, by the end of the second quarter. This stock is also amongst Richard Barrera’s Roystone Capital Partners’ top picks for the second quarter, same as in Leon Shaulov’s Mapleline Capital LLC’s favorite stocks.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned
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