Facebook Inc (FB), Splunk Inc (SPLK): Billionaire Noam Gottesman’s 5 Favorite Stock Picks

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Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) leaves little to the imagination in terms of naming and its operations, but some may not know that Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) is the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, commanding nearly 50% of the market share. GLG’s 3mm share investment gives the hedge fund’s position a market value of almost $53mm. In the company’s Q1 earnings announcement late last month, Taiwan Semiconductor raised its forecast for industry growth to 10% from 7% beforehand. The stock has seen a fairly steady rise since last year, up 36% since May 2012. Billionaire Daniel S. Och of OZ Management has a $69mm call option position in Taiwan Semiconductor.

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) rounds out the bottom of GLG’s top five and is no surprise to those analyzing hedge fund 13Fs, as QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) consistently appears in many hedge funds’ top 10 holdings (joining names like American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)). Besides garnering the telecommunications player with bullish one-year price targets, analysts from the likes of Northland Securities, Raymond James, and Tigress Financial Partners have given Qualcomm bullish ratings since mid-March. Billionaire Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management owns nearly $600mm worth.

Final thoughts

Noam Gottesman doesn’t receive the same level of hype that fellow billionaires like Warren Buffett or David Einhorn receive, but this may give piggybackers a leg up on their competition, so to speak. From Qualcomm’s favoritism amongst the smart money’s best, to the attractiveness of Taiwan Semiconductor, Walgreen, Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Gottesman has amassed an interested equity portfolio worth further research.

Disclosure: none

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