Billionaire John Paulson’s Eclectic Mix Of New Stock Picks

Paulson acquired some 1.72 million shares of Cyberonics Inc (NASDAQ:CYBX), valued at $111.91 million during the first quarter. The stake represented 0.56% of the value of the fund’s public equity portfolio. Cyberonics Inc (NASDAQ:CYBX) is engaged in the production of implantable medical devices. On a year-to-date basis, the company has returned around 10.11%, though it could have performed much better: the share price has dipped by 18% from its yearly high, after news of its merger with Sorin SPA Milano (OTCMKTS:SORJF) first became public. The merged entity will be called LivaNova, with the merger expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter. As for Cyberonics’ first quarter results, the company missed the top line expectations by 4.31%, reporting $74.1 million of revenues, and beat the bottom lime estimates by $0.01, closing the period with $0.64 in EPS. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies reported having around 2.10 million shares of the company, valued at $134.07 million after the first three months of the year.

Lastly, Paulson & Co initiated a position in Outfront Media Inc (NYSE:OUT), obtaining 3.31 million shares over the first quarter, valued at $98.96 million as of the end of it. The company is a relatively young participant on the markets, since it went public only in April of 2014. Since then, the stock of the US leader in billboard advertising has depreciated by 10.31%. However, the mean analysts’ expectations suggest 19.01% upward potential from current levels. The reason for that lies in anticipation of favorable EPS figures in the near future.  Eminence Capital, managed by Ricky Sandler, heads the list of other investors who made bets on Outfront Media Inc (NYSE:OUT), holding about 3.16 million shares with a total value of $94.53 million. Over the first quarter, Mr. Sandler decided to cut his ownership in this company by 19% however.

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