Billionaire Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates’ Favorite Stock Picks: Kraft Heinz Co (KHC), Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) & More

Gold mining stocks have had an excellent run this year and not surprisingly one of the biggest mining companies finds a place in Caxton’s portfolio. Caxton had exposure to Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) through stocks and call options, according to its most recent 13F filing. During the second quarter, the fund trimmed its long position in Barrick Gold by 35% to 7.60 million shares worth $162.3 million. In addition, the investor held ‘Call’ options underlying some 15.20 million shares. A total of 53 funds from our database were long Barrick Gold at the end of June, up from 49 a quarter earlier, while the value of their holdings surged to $3.83 billion from $2.73 billion during the quarter and represented 15.40% of Barrick Gold’s float at the end of June. Barrick Gold suffered a setback this week as the Argentinian government temporarily suspended operations at its Veladero gold mine in order to inspect the heap leach area following the spilling of a solution that contained cyanide. A similar spill in September last year also led to operations being temporarily suspended at the mine. Barrick Gold was fined $9 million for the spill by a provincial court in Argentina last year.

Another of Caxton’s major holdings in the Consumer Staples space at the end of the June quarter was Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST), in which the investor held 1.37 million shares, worth $220.65 million; the fund added 382,000 shares to the position during the second quarter. A total of 33 funds tracked by us amassed shares of Monster Beverage worth $1.55 billion in aggregate at the end of June, compared to 31 funds holding $1.02 billion worth of stock a quarter value. Monster Beverage reported second-quarter earnings of $0.99 per share, missing consensus estimate of $1.03 per share, while its revenue of $827.49 million topped the expectations by $23.25 million.

Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) was one of Caxton’s biggest holdings at the end of the second quarter, as the $321 million position amassed 8.85% of the fund’s total equity portfolio. The fund held 3.63 million shares at the end of June, up by 431,230 shares over the quarter. Among the funds in our database, 60 held $31.28 billion worth of Kraft Heinz shares at the end of June, which equals to 29.10% of the outstanding stock. Kraft Heinz’s stock has returned more than 22% so far this year and currently sports a healthy dividend yield of 2.70%. Last month, Kraft Heinz reported its second-quarter financial results, posting earnings of $0.85 per share on revenue of $6.79 billion, compared to analysts’ estimates of earnings of $0.79 per share on revenue of $6.79 billion.

Disclosure: none