Mark Stupfel’s Cortex Capital Management has filed its 13F with the SEC for the reporting period of March 31. The financial advisory firm is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas and has an equity portfolio of $86.37 million as of the reporting period. The fund manager is primarily invested in the finance, consumer discretionary, healthcare, and information technology sectors. Stupfel added seven new stocks to his portfolio during the first quarter, including Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) and Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS), and we’ll look at these top new picks of his in this article.
Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com
Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is the biggest new position initiated by the fund manager during the first quarter of 2015. He owns 180,000 shares of the controversial, direct-selling nutrition company, with a market value of $7.70 million, which is a somewhat surprising addition to his portfolio given the recent controversies surrounding it. According to prominent activist investor Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is a pyramid scheme company that makes money by adding more members rather than selling products. He has maintained short bets in excess of $1 billion against the company. Despite the accusations of Ackman, Herbalife has its fair share of supporters in addition to Stupfel, including Carl Icahn of Icahn Capital LP and George Soros. Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) reported its first quarter 2015 financial results last week with earnings per share of $1.29, which was lower than its earnings per share of $1.50 year-over-year. Icahn Capital, Soros Fund Management, and East Side Capital are among the major investors of Herbalife Ltd.
Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) is the second largest new addition to the equity portfolio of Cortex Capital Management. The advisory firm owns 500,000 shares of the company with a market value of $1.72 million as of the reporting period. Working primarily in advanced laser display technologies, Microvision has a current market cap of $140.24 million. The shares of Microvision have jumped in excess of 70% year-to-date. Unsurprisingly it has been an excellent year for the technology firm as the company landed a Fortune Global 100 Electronics Company as its client and received an $8 million upfront payment from it in March, along with a multi-year contract. While the client’s name was initially withheld by Microvision, CEO Alexander Tokman confirmed during a conference call to discuss his company’s latest earnings report that the client is Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE). Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) reported revenue of $0.9 million in its first quarter ending on March 31, 2015, which was lower than its first quarter 2014 revenue of $1.2 million. Some of the top investors of Microvision include Peak6 Capital Management and Citadel Investment Group.
