James Pallotta’s Raptor Capital Hits Homerun with Hospira, Inc. (HSP)

Raptor’s quarter would have been better had it not been for Pallotta’s position in AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL). Raptor held 119,474 shares of AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL) at a value of $5.5 million, representing a 7.5% position in its 13F portfolio. Pallotta’s conviction, however, didn’t seem to be very high as he sold off much of the position in the fourth quarter, decreasing it by almost 70% compared to the previous quarter. This was in contrast to other major investors who were adding to their positions, like D E Shaw, which increased its holding by 23%, and Iridian Asset Management run by David Cohen and Harold Levy, which added 14% to its position in AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL).

Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) was another laggard for Raptor. The firm held 25,800 shares of Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) at a value of $5.8 million. This represented an 8% cut of  its 13F portfolio.  Among the funds we track, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital is the largest holder with 7.0 million shares valued at $1.6 billion,followed by Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management with 2.9 million shares valued at $672 million according to their latest filings. Investors remain bullish on Baidu because of its exposure to the Chinese search market, where Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is blocked, which allows the company to take advantage of $15 billion that will be spent on search advertising in 2015 alone. Shares of Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) fell 8.5% for the first quarter.

Pallotta had another solid pick in Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR). At the beginning of the year, Raptor held 89,300 shares with a value of $3.4 million, representing a 4.6% position in its 13F portfolio. Pallotta did start to cut Raptor’s holding in Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) in the fourth quarter, by 26%. Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), a provider of point-of-care diagnostics and services gained 28% in the first quarter of 2015. Last month Goldman Sachs upgraded Alere due in part to a positive fourth quarter and its plan to focus on toxicology and point-of-care diagnostic products, which could produce wider margins. Scopia Capital run by Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich holds 5.4 million shares at a value of $205 million. This is followed by William Gray’s Orbis Investment Management which has 2.9 million shares at a value of $110 million.

Disclosure: None