Morgan Stanley (MS), Saks Inc (SKS) Are Top Picks Of Caxton Associates

Bruce Kovner is one of greatest traders in the investment world. In 1983, Kovner founded Caxton Associates Lp, a hedge fund with about $10 billion in assets under management, and in 2011, he announced his retirement. In the latest round of 13F filings, Caxton Associates disclosed all of its equities as of the end of the second quarter of the year.

CAXTON ASSOCIATES LPFollowing hedge fund sentiment can lead to market outperformance, so let’s take a look at Caxton’s top stock picks from last quarter.

As follows, in first is Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), in which the hedge fund disclosed ownership of 5.2 million shares, worth almost $127.9 million. During the second quarter of the year, the Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) stake in Caxton’s equity portfolio declined by almost 30%, equivalent to about 2.1 million shares. The financial giant’s stock price has returned about 37.8% since the beginning of the year, though, so this looks to simply be profit-taking.

In second is Saks Inc (NYSE:SKS). Caxton Associates held 6.6 million shares of the company during the April-June period, with the value of the stake amounting to more than $90 million. In the previous round of 13F filings, Caxton disclosed a Saks stake that was worth $59.5 million, and contained 5.2 million shares. With P/E and PEG ratios of 30.9x and 3.8x, the stock of Saks Inc (NYSE:SKS) has returned over 52% since the beginning of the year.

In addition to MS and SKS, we should mention some other companies, in which Caxton held important stakes. The following three largest picks in the Caxton’s 13F are represented by new positions, purchased during the second quarter. In Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), the hedge fund disclosed a $43 million stake, which contains 500,000 shares. The next two positions are held by United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE:URI) and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), in which Caxton disclosed ownership of 756,819 and about 1.1 million shares respectively, the value of the stakes being $37.8 million and $33.1 million.

To sum up, we should mention that the total value of the Caxton Associates equity portfolio amounts to almost $2.0 billion, an increase from the previous quarter’s value of $1.6 billion.

Recommended reading: Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller Traded Homebuilders for Google Inc (GOOG) Last Quarter: Lennar Corporation (LEN), D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI)