Sandler Capital’s Under-the-Radar Stock Picks and One Tech Pick to Rule Them All

#3 Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD)

– Shares held (as of September 30): 144,696

– Total Value (as of September 30): $16.71 million

Sandler Capital increased its position in home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) by 9,561 shares during the third quarter. Home Depot was profitable during the third quarter, posting a 6.4% year-over-year increase in sales to $21.8 billion. The company’s earnings grew to $1.7 billion compared to earnings of $1.5 billion in the same period of last year. Those strong results have contributed to the company’s stock having surged by 25.65% year-to-date. At the end of September, a total of 69 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), up slightly from 67 investors at the end of June. Another investor betting big on Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) is Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, which held 8.38 million shares at the end of September.

#2 Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:LYV)

– Shares held (as of September 30): 699,539

– Total Value (as of September 30): $16.82 million

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:LYV) is a live entertainment company in which Sandler Capital decreased its position by 83,768 shares during the third quarter. Live Nation reported solid financial results for the third quarter, with its operating income increasing to $153.5 million compared to $150.6 million a year earlier, while its revenue rose to $2.62 billion, up by $120 million year-over-year. Live Nation Entertainment lost a fair deal of hedge fund support during the third quarter however. A total of 28 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held the stock in their portfolios at the end of September, down from 36 investors long Live Nation at the end of June. Among those investors was Charles Akre’s Akre Capital Management, which owned 6.26 million shares at the end of September.

#1 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

– Shares held (as of September 30): 419,944

– Total Value (as of September 30): $37.75 million

Sandler Capital’s top holding at the end of September was Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and despite the investor decreasing its position in the social networking giant by 38,146 shares during the quarter, it still had more than twice as much capital invested in the stock than in any other. That has certainly paid off well for the fund in the fourth quarter, as Facebook shares are up by over 16%. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is a favorite stock among billionaires tracked by Insider Monkey, as a total of 18 billionaires held positions in Facebook at the end of September. Among other things, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is now focusing on video ads and Facebook Instant Articles to boost its revenue. The company’s latest product, Facebook Instant Articles, enables newspaper publishers to post their articles directly to Facebook’s iOS app, which is likely to increase the company’s ad revenue. Among the hedge funds and other investors that we track, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is the largest stockholder of Facebook as of September 30, with ownership of more than 10.7 million shares.

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