Hawkins Capital, headed by Russell Hawkins, recently filed its 13F form with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the reporting period of June 30. Hawkins set up his own fund back in 2003, after previously holding down a position managing Dreyfus’ mutual funds, where he oversaw some $8 billion in assets. These days, his investment firm controls around $1 billion in assets and mostly employs a long/short approach to investing. The total market value of Hawkins’ portfolio as of the reporting date was $285.25 million, a decrease of 33% from the end of March. Among the positions that contributed to the decline in the fund’s portfolio value were many of its top tech picks, including Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) and EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), all of which were slashed during the second quarter. In this article we are going to take a closer look at how these companies performed over the past few months and consider how other money managers are trading them.
NorGal / Shutterstock.com
Professional investors like Hawkins spend considerable time and money conducting due diligence on each company they invest in, which makes them the perfect investors to emulate. However, we also know that the returns of hedge funds on the whole have not been good for several years, underperforming the market. We analyzed the historical stock picks of these investors and our research revealed that the small-cap picks of these funds performed far better than their large-cap picks, which is where most of their money is invested and why their performances as a whole have been poor. Why pay fees to invest in both the best and worst ideas of a particular hedge fund when you can simply mimic the best ideas of the best fund managers on your own? A portfolio consisting of the 15 most popular small-cap stock picks among the funds we track has returned more than 123% and beaten the market by more than 65 percentage points since the end of August 2012 (see the details).
Follow Russell Hawkins's Hawkins Capital
Following up a 52% cut to its position in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Hawkins Capital ended the second quarter with some 1.07 million shares valued at $32.42 million. For many people this $139.04 billion computer equipment manufacturer from Santa Clara, California, will need little introduction, as some of you undoubtedly have Intel computers at home, while others hold the company’s shares. While the former may be pleased with their Intel investment, we can say the latter are definitely disappointed this year, as Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has lost around 20.45% of its value during 2015. In the middle of July the company reported EPS of $0.55 and revenues of $13.2 billion for its second quarter financial results, while the expectations stood at $0.50 and $13.04 billion respectively. While the results look strong, there are warning signs hiding behind the numbers, as most market expects are afraid that the company will not manage to adjust to the slowing PC demand over the long term. Among the other funds that we follow, Jean-Marie Eveillard‘s First Eagle Investment Management holds 28.48 million shares as of June 30. First Eagle trimmed its position by 1% during the second quarter.
The fund’s holding of Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was affected slightly less than Intel’s, being cut by 28% during the second quarter to 715,720 shares worth $19.65 million. During the year the stock has been mostly trading sideways, and is currently around 3% in the green. The latest earnings call allowed Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) to show off strong quarterly results, beating both earnings and revenue estimates for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2015, which sent the stock up by 5%. For the fiscal fourth quarter ending July 25, the company reported $12.8 billion in sales versus estimates of $12.65 billion, and $0.59 in EPS compared to estimates of $0.56. Currently, the mean target price of analysts suggests another 8.6% upside potential from the $28.70 at which the stock is trading today. Fisher Asset Management, led by Ken Fisher, finished the first six months of the year with 15.33 million shares of Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) valued at $422.02 million, marginally increasing its holding during the second quarter.
Lastly, Russell Hawkins held 542,200 shares of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) worth $14.31 million as of June 30. The company has a market capitalisation of $50.72 billion and provides various IT-supporting services as well as develops the IT infrastructure. During the last week, two respected analyst firms, Credit Suisse and Jefferies Group, boost their price targets for the shares of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), with Credit Suisse raising its target to $34 from $30, while Jefferies Group lifted its own target to $32 from $30. Year-to-date the stock has lost 11.33%, but it seems that the price may have found its bottom in the middle of July, after which it has rebounded by 5.7%. John Levin‘s Levin Capital Strategies holds a large position in EMC Corporation consisting of 9.12 million shares as of June 30. Though the position was cut by 14% during the second quarter, it moved up by one spot to third in terms of the most valuable positions in Levin’s portfolio.
Disclosure: None
