Marque Millennium Capital is a New York-based hedge fund founded by Wilfred Meckel. The fund uses a long strategy with a focus on larger-cap US equities and has around $254 million in its equity portfolio as of the end of March. Marque’s portfolio is diversified across sectors, with technology, finance, healthcare and consumer amassing the largest positions and collectively representing nearly 70% of the total portfolio value. The same trend can be observed by looking at the fund’s top five picks: Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ), Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX), Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC).
Marque Millennium is one of more than 700 hedge funds that we track as part of our small-cap strategy. Through backtests we determined that a portfolio consisting of the 15 most-popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds outperformed the market by an average of 95 basis points per month and generated a double-digit annual alpha. Moreover, since we launched the strategy in August 2012, this system managed to post gains of over 137%, outperforming the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by over 80 percentage points during the same period (read more details here). On the other hand, a portfolio that consisted of the 50 most popular stocks, including mid-, large- and mega-cap companies underperformed the market by an average of 7 basis points per month.
Let’s take a closer look at Marque Millennium’s top picks. On the first spot is Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ), in which the investor owns some 103,600 shares, valued at $12.03 million. While the stake remained unchanged, the position climbed one spot as Constellation Brands’ stock gained more than 18% during the first quarter. Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) is an international alcohol beverage company with a portfolio of brands and products that are among the leaders in terms of sales in their markets. Recently the company has announced its first dividend payment to shareholders of $0.31 per share, payable on May 22, which gives it a yield of 1.06%. Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, and Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group are also among Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ)’s shareholders.
Next in line is Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX), one of Mr. Meckel’s picks from the finance sector. Marque Millennium disclosed an $11.21 million position in the company that contains 288,100 shares, also unchanged over the quarter, but the previous value of the stake amounted to $9.75 million. Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) is a $40 billion alternative asset management company, whose stock climbed more than 38% in the last 52 weeks. Amid that stock growth, the company has seen several big insider transactions in the last couple of months. The latest involves Blackstone’s Chief Legal Officer, who earlier this week sold 12,000 shares at $42.18 apiece, holding around 29,900 shares following the transaction. Among the funds we track, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group and John W. Rogers‘ Ariel Investments held long positions in Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) as of the end of 2014 and many other investors disclosed stakes in options underlying the company’s shares.
In Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX), Marque Millennium Capital owns 103,400 shares, valued at $8.97 million. The stock of the $63 billion healthcare management company edged up by 2.5% during the January-March period. In its latest financial results, Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) posted revenue of $24.90 billion, up from $23.69 billion a year earlier and EPS of $0.61, versus $0.42 for the first quarter of 2014. Moreover, the company provided its EPS outlook for the second quarter, setting it between $1.39 and $1.43, which tops the current estimates of $1.37. Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC and Glenn Greenberg‘s Brave Warrior Capital were the largest shareholders of Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) among the funds we track, according to the previous round of 13F filings.
The following two companies are Mr. Meckel’s largest picks from the technology sector. In Apple, which owns one of the most profitable businesses ever, the investor reported holding almost 66,900 shares worth $8.32 million. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the obvious choice of any technology-oriented investor due to its solid returns. The company’s latest financial results also came ahead of expectations and on top of that, its buyback program was increased to $200 billion. Overall, it is obvious why investors like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Among the investors we track, Apple is the most popular stock (see the list of 10 most popular stocks here). The most bullish of them is Carl Icahn, who owns 52.76 million shares. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital also likes Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as it stated in its last letter to investors: “AAPL is a superior company that merits a premium multiple.”
Finally, the fifth-largest position in terms of value is represented by Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC), in which Marque owns 88,400 shares worth $8.05 billion. Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) is a company that develops data storage solutions, with HDDs and SSDs being among its product offerings. Its stock is up by around 11% over the last 52 weeks and analysts are bullish on the company’s prospects, as the majority of firms covering the stock reiterated ‘Buy’ ratings in the last month and the consensus price target stands at above $117 per share, upside of over 20%. The largest shareholders of Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) among the funds from our database are Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors, although their positions amass less than 1% of their equity portfolios.
Disclosure: none
