How Hedge Funds’ Favorite Stocks Are Performing This Year?

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#3 Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

– Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 142

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $14.90 billion

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 155

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $14.98 billion

– Performance: 6%

During the first quarter, the number of funds covered by us long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s class A stock inched up by one, but the aggregate value of their holdings in it fell by $120 million, while the number of investors holding class C shares remained unchanged, but the total value of their positions went up by $700 million. For the second quarter, Alphabet reported EPS of $8.42 and revenue of $21.5 billion (up by 21% on the year), while analysts had expected EPS of $8.04 on revenue of $20.76 billion. After a disappointing first quarter, better-than-expected results for the second quarter helped the stock to rebound and assured investors that Alphabet is seeing growth across most segments. Fisher Asset Management reported ownership of 995,300 class A shares of Alphabet and 455,300 class C shares in its 13F filing for the end of the second quarter.

#2 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 164

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $14.53 billion

– Performance: 9.5%

During the first quarter, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) saw a marked increase in its popularity and the number of funds bullish on the stock went up by 18 during the first quarter, while the aggregate value of their holdings jumped by $3.74 billion. Facebook is the best-performing stock among those covered in this article, which is not surprising, since the company showed solid results and managed to beat the estimates every quarter reported so far this year. For the second quarter, the company posted EPS of $0.97 on revenue of $6.44 billion, beating analysts’ expectations by $0.15 and $420 million, respectively. Facebook also registered strong growth in monthly active users (MAU) and mobile MAU and an increase in the share of mobile revenue to 84% of the total from 76% a year earlier. Principal Global Investors’ Columbus Circle Investors holds 2.04 million shares of Facebook as of the end of June.

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#1 Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN)

 – Investors with long positions (as of March 31): 170

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings (as of March 31): $20.11 billion

– Performance: -5.9%

The most popular stock at the end of first quarter among the funds covered by us, Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE: AGN), is the worst-performing in this list. The stock is down mainly due to the termination of the merger between Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) that was announced in early April. Investors were betting on the merger to go through and the number of funds from our database long the stock jumped by 11 during the January-March period. The company has recently reported its second-quarter results, with EPS of $3.35, better than the expected $3.32, but revenue of $3.72 billion inched up by just 1.1% on the year and missed analysts’ estimates by $270 million. At the beginning of August, Allergan completed the $40.5 billion sale of its generic unit to Teva Pharmaceuticals and there have been reports that it might be interested in acquiring Biogen, although it might have to compete with Merck & Co. John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management has disclosed ownership of 836,600 shares of Allergan in its latest 13F filing.

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Disclosure: None

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