Here’s How Billionaire Bill Ackman’s Top Picks Performed In the Fourth Quarter

#4 Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ)

Shares held (as of September 30): 43.37 million
Total Value (as of September 30): $1.82 billion
Percent of Portfolio (as of September 30): 13.02%

Consumer staple Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) had a pretty solid fourth quarter too, with its stock surging by more than 7%. The company is reducing its costs, with management well on its way in implementing a $3.5 billion cost-cutting strategy to be completed by the end of 2018. Although Ackman would ideally like to see the company sold at a nice premium to a suitor like Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC), management is doing the next best thing by considering selling the company’s European cheese and grocery business for now. Nevertheless, Ackman is bullish on Mondelez and considers it a “a classic Pershing Square investment in a high quality, simple, predictable business with attractive long-term growth, and multiple opportunities to create shareholder value,” according to his investor letter.

“We maintain our belief that the opportunity for productivity improvement and margin expansion at Mondelez is vast – the largest in the large cap consumer packaged goods sector. The company’s operating profit margins were 12% last year, and are estimated to be roughly 14% in 2015, well below what they can or should be given the company’s attractive categories, dominant brands, and enormous scale,” Ackman added.

Perhaps following Ackman’s lead (Mondelez is a new position for Ackman), other hedge funds have been snapping up Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) too, as the number of funds owning shares of the company rose by 20 to 69 between July and September.

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