Can David Einhorn’s Mid-Cap Picks Beat The Market? History Says Yes…And No

Another financial service company which stands as one of Einhorn’s top mid-cap stock picks is the New York-based Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA). Einhorn increased his position in the Voya by 7% during the first quarter to 5.91 million shares with a value of $254.74 million, a 3.32% cut of the fund’s public equity portfolio. Voya Financial has been a good pick this year, returning 11.4% year-to-date and an impressive 29.8% over the past year. Furthermore, Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA), which is a spin-off from Dutch ING Groep NV (NYSE:ING) and provides products in Retirements, Annuities, Investment Management, Individual and Employee Benefits, reached a new all-time-high on June 11, when the stock closed at $47.21. The earnings per share of $0.82 for the first quarter, posted on May 6, beat analysts’ expectations by $0.07 and were also $0.07 higher than the earnings for the same period the year before. Return-on-Equity also increased, indicating that Voya Financial is growing more adept at running its operations. In May it was also revealed that Voya Financial had been selected as the sole provider of the state of Nevada’s Public Employees compensation program. A stake in Voya Financial was opened by hedge fund manager Ron Bobman of Capital Returns Management during the first quarter, consisting of 279,000 shares valued at $12.03 million.

In semiconductor equipment manufacturer Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), Greenlight Capital decreased its stake by 34% to 1.65 million shares with a value of $116.24 million. The Fremont, California-based Lam Research has experienced a bumpy spring on the NASDAQ, but is up 4% year-to-date. Something that made the markets happy was the 67% increase to the company’s dividend payments, which was announced in May. The quarterly dividend, of $0.30 per share, will be paid on July 1 and the share is trading ex-dividend since June 10, with the dividend yield standing at 1.47%. The results for the first quarter were better than analysts expected, with earnings per share of $1.40 and a 14% increase in its revenue compared to the same period the year before. Analysts are now assigning a target price of $94.36 on the stock, 14% upside above its closing level on June 11. A major shareholder in Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) is Ken Griffin, whose Citadel Investment Group increased its stake by 66% during the quarter to 2.31 million shares with a value of $162.51 million.

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