5 Best Stocks In The S&P 500 Index According To This Billionaire

Lone Pine Capital initiated a new position in eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) by buying more than 33 million shares of during the quarter ending September. Stephen Mandel was the top buyer of the second largest online retailer in USA. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is now the third largest holding of the fund. The shares of this $32 billion US e-commerce player declined 2% over the last year. The company posted healthy net profit margin of 18.8% and operating margin of 24.5% at the end of third quarter. Amongst the other hedge funds, top buyers of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) included Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and the quant hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. Thus three of the largest hedge funds in the world held a large stake in this stock. The value of hedge fund holdings in eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) more than doubled to $3.7 billion from $1.72 billion quarter over quarter.

Stephen Mandel slightly decreased his stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by selling 351,140 shares at the end of the third quarter. The stock still is the fourth largest holding of Lone Pine Capital for the quarter. This $366 billion largest online e-commerce player has returned almost 300% to its stockholders over the last five years, when the broader NASDAQ was up only 120%. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has been a hot favourite amongst the world’s largest hedge funds this year.  Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was the largest holding of D.E. Shaw with a total holding size of $905 million. It also constituted the biggest position in Viking Global Investors. At the end of the third quarter, the number of hedge funds long in this stock increased to 150 from 145 in the quarter earlier. The value of their holdings also increased by almost 5% to $20.8 billion, quarter over quarter.

Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) remains one of the biggest stock holdings of Lone Pine Capital despite the fund cutting down its stake by 16% at the end of the third quarter. Stephen Mandel still holds $926 million of this wine maker’s shares which gives him a 3% ownership of the company. Viking Global Investors was the biggest buyer of this company’s stock purchasing 2.2 million shares during the third quarter. Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) was also highly popular amongst large hedge funds with Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management, Pictet Management, Third Point, AQR Capital Management and Citadel Advisors buying substantial stakes. Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) has a market value of $30 billion and gives a dividend yield of 1%. It has been a multi bagger over the last 5 years but its recent performance has been quite tepid. As per our database, 67 funds held shares worth $6.67 billion in Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ), versus 69 funds holding $6.27 billion in the quarter earlier.

Lone Pine Capital reduced its position in Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) during the third quarter but it still remains the fund’s 6^th largest position with a value of $927 million. The fund initiated a position in this stock during the first quarter of 2015 and owns more than 1% of the total shares of this footwear giant. Quant funds Renaissance Technologies and D.E.Shaw also reduced their holdings of Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) during the quarter. The stock has performed poorly over the last one year losing 1/5^th of its value and trades at the bottom of its annual price range. Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) gave a guidance of just 1% sales growth in USA which implied that the company is losing market share in the USA to competitors. Its overall growth is also expected to slow down to just 5% compared to 9% growth last year. According to our records, smart money investmnet in this stock declined substantially by 13.5% quarter over quarter.

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