Five Stocks Locust Wood Capital Added to Its Equity Portfolio

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#3. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

– Shares owned by Locust Wood Capital LP as of June 30: 227,630

– Value of Locust Wood Capital LP’s holding as of June 30: $16.88 Million

The investment management firm founded by Wall Street veteran Stephen J. Errico initiated a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the three-month period ending June 30, which comprised 227,630 shares. The new Visa position was valued at $16.88 million at the end of June and made up 1.9% of the investment firm’s portfolio. Just recently, global payments technology company Visa and internet payments pioneer Paypal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) inked a partnership agreement under which Paypal’s long-running battle to steer customers away from using Visa and other cards was officially capitulated. In return, the credit-card company agreed not to increase fees to PayPal, as well as provide PayPal users access to Visa’s contactless payment points across the United States. Analysts believe the partnership deal makes a lot of sense for Visa, as PayPal will stop encouraging customers to link to bank accounts at the expense of Visa cards. Visa shares are up a little less than 1% year-to-date. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management holds a 14.82 million-share stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) as of the end of the second quarter.

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#2. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS)

– Shares owned by Locust Wood Capital LP as of June 30: 171,763

– Value of Locust Wood Capital LP’s holding as of June 30: $25.52 Million

The $1.1 billion-asset manager snatched up a 171,763-share stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) during the June quarter, which was valued at $25.52 million at the end of the quarter. The new position accounted for 2.9% of the investment firm’s portfolio. Fresh media reports suggest that Goldman Sachs plans to raise capital for its first private-equity fund since the financial crisis, but the fund will not be as large as investment bank’s earlier vehicles. The new corporate-buyout fund of between $5 billion and $8 billion will be named West Street Capital Partners. Goldman Sachs will provide only a small portion of capital for the new fund because of post-crisis restrictions on risk-taking by banks. Under the Volcker rule passed as part of the Dodd-Frank financial law in 2010, banks can contribute no more than a total of 3% of the capital raised by private-equity firms. Goldman Sachs shares are almost 12% in the red thus far in 2016. Ray Carroll’s Breton Hill Capital has 6,443 shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) among its holdings as of June 30.

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#1. Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL)

– Shares owned by Locust Wood Capital LP as of June 30: 358,173

– Value of Locust Wood Capital LP’s holding as of June 30: $25.89 Million

Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) was yet another addition to Locust Wood Capital LP’s portfolio during the second quarter, with the new position accounting for 2.9% of the hedge fund’s portfolio. The 358,173-share position was worth $25.89 million on June 30. The shares of the supplier of metal packaging to the beverage, food, personal care and household products industries are down 2% year-to-date. In mid-July, analysts at Barclays reestablished coverage on Ball Corporation with an ‘Equal Weight’ rating and a price target of $75, saying that “our positive industry view is balanced by our belief that synergy upside surprises are likely to be limited, and current valuation is stretched”. Ball Corporation recently completed the acquisition of Rexam PLC for roughly $6.1 billion of cash and equity, making the acquirer the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in the world. The company anticipates to derive synergies in excess of $300 million by the end of the third year of combined operations. Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital owned 2.56 million shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) on March 31.

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Disclosure: None

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