Sprott Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio Posts 10.77% Gain in Q1

Nr. of Shares (as of December 31):  347,230

Value of Holding (as of December 31): $40.85 million

Although it was not a brilliant start of the year for UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH), the stock still managed to turn profitable and ended the first quarter up by roughly 10%. Probably the most important catalyst for the change in trend was the company’s fourth quarter earnings report, which showed revenues up by 30% year over year to $43.6 billion, while earnings came in at $1.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.38 in earnings per share. Analysts expected the company to report $43.26 billion in revenues. UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) could be found in the portfolio of 50 funds from our database at the end of December 2015, down from 51 at the end of September. Despite the large number of funds invested in this stock, they hold only 2.5% of the company’s common stock. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management is bullish on UnitedHealth Group and has increased its position by 5% during the quarter to 7.9 million shares worth close to $1 billion. Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management, on the other hand, chose to distance from the stock and dumped approximately 13% of his stake, reducing it to 4.01 million shares.

Nr. of Shares (as of December 31): 390,800

Value of Holding (as of December 31): $38.21 million

Like UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) embarked on a downtrend at the beginning of the year and it was the fourth quarter earnings report that propped up the stock and pushed it up by 6.5% for the first quarter. The retail pharmacy chain posted revenues of $41.1 billion, up by 11% year over year, and adjusted earnings of $1.53 per share and had reaffirmed their 2016 projections. Analysts at Credit Suisse have recently initiated coverage of CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) and have assigned an ‘Outperform’ rating and a price target of $115 per share. The hedge fund sentiment towards CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) cooled down a bit during the fourth quarter, as the number of funds with long positions tumbled to 53 from 60. AQR Capital unloaded a big chunk of his position during the quarter, having reduced it to 2.61 million shares by the end of 2015. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell‘s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, reported an 8% increase in its holding to 2.33 million shares in its latest 13F filing.