Columbus Circle Investors’ Top Stock Picks

Columbus Circle Investors manages over $1 billion assets in at least three hedge funds, CCI Healthcare Partners, CCI Technology Partners, LP, and CCI Technology Partners, Ltd. According to their website the company manages over $17 billion in total as of June 30th. Below we will take a look at Columbus Circle Investor’s aggregate 13F portfolio based on third quarter filings. Columbus Circle Investors doesn’t recommend or endorse any of the stocks discussed in this article. We aren’t agents of Columbus Circle Investors and we aren’t compensated by them. These are our opinions based SEC filings. We try to gather intelligence by analyzing fund managers’ recent activity.

McDonalds (MCD)

Columbus Circle Investors disclosed in its latest 13F that it initiated a brand new $127 million of McDonalds Corp (MCD). The fast food restaurant company reported strong sales for the third quarter of 2011. Its revenue was $7.2 billion, compared with $6.3 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Net income was $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier. MCD returned 7.90% since the end of September. Ric Dillon also invested $154 million in MCD.

Columbus Circle Investors also opened new positions in Halliburton Company (HAL), an oilfield services company conducting business in approximately 80 countries. CCI reported that it owned $70.3 million worth of HAL shares at the end of September. For the three months ending September 30, 2011, Halliburton reported revenue of $6.55 billion, compared with $4.67 billion last year. Net income rose from $544 million to $683 million. HAL returned 26.44% since the end of September. Over the second quarter, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management initiated a brand new $285 million of HAL stocks. Ken Heebner, Ken Griffin and many other famous hedge fund managers also invested certain amount of their portfolio in HAL.

Over the third quarter, Columbus Circle Investors largely increased its position in Discover Financial Services (DFS), a direct banking and payment services company. Columbus Circle Investors had $91.2 million invested in DFS at the end of June and it now had $144.4 million of DFS stocks. DFS returned 8.26% since the end of September. Cliff Asness had $78 million and Israel Englander had $51 million invested in DFS at the end of June.

Columbus Circle Investors also increased its position in Mastercard Inc (MA) by 3.81% and Allergan Inc (AGN) by 9.68%. It reported to own $233 million worth of MA and $169 million worth of AGN as of September 30, 2011. MA returned 16.76% and AGN gained 3.27% since the end of September. For the third quarter of 2011, Mastercard reported net income of $717 million, up 38.4% from the same period last year, earnings per diluted share of $5.63, up 42.9% compared with the year-ago period, and net revenue of $1.8 billion, a 27.3% increase versus third quarter in 2010. Jean-Marie Eveillard and Tom Russo also both had over $200 million invested in MA. Allergan, a multi-specialty health care company, posted third-quarter revenue of $1.31 billion, compared with $1.19 billion last year. Net income was $249.8 million, up from a net loss of $670.5 million a year ago. Ken Fisher initiated a brand new $350+ million of AGN over the second quarter.