Viking Global’s Top Five Picks for Q1 include Walgreen Company (WAG) & Time Warner Inc (TWX)

Last week, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, filed a Form 13F at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing its equity positions as of March 31 2014. Over the first quarter, the fund started 21 new stock positions, increased its stakes in 22 of its preexisting holdings, and sold out of 26 other positions. In this article, I want to take a brief look at the fund’s top positions, and how they have changed over Q1.

Andreas Halvorsen

Viking Global’s top five holdings changed substantially over the first fiscal quarter, and now account for more than 28% of the fund’s equity portfolio’s value. The first place, which used to belong to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO), was taken by Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG), a $65.8 billion market cap company that operates a network of drugstores in the United States. The pharmaceutical retailer saw the fund’s position double over the first quarter, to roughly 24 million shares, worth more than $1.6 billion.

Similar is Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners’ case, which also increased its stakes in the stock by 65%, and now owns about 12 million shares. This makes it Jana Partners’ most valuable equity holding, as well.

The second most expensive holding in Mr. Halvorsen’s equity portfolio escalated from the sixth position in the previous quarter. Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), a $61.8 billion market cap media and entertainment company, witnessed a marked increase in Viking Global’s position over the quarter. Up 61% in relation to the previous quarter, the fund now owns 21.6 million shares, which is more than $1.5 billion in stock. Another major fund betting on this company is Daniel S. Och’s Oz Management, which upped its wager by 22%, to 9.24 million shares (once again, this makes it the fund’s most valuable equity position).

In the third place, there’s Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN), developer, manufacturer and marketer of integrated systems for the large scale analysis of genetic variation and biological function, with a market cap barely shy of $20 billion. During the first quarter, Viking Global acquired about 7.17 million shares of the company, worth more than $1.1 billion, and now owns 8.86 million shares, which account for 5.5% of its total equity portfolio.

In addition to Mr. Halvorsen, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, has been increasing its stakes in Illumina for, at least, a couple of quarters. Over Q1, the fund bought 100,503 shares of the company, and now owns 786,014 shares.

Finally, I would like to review two more bullish moves that took place over the quarter. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) saw the fund increase its stakes by 11% and 26%, respectively. Viking Global now owns about $1.2 billion in each of the large-cap companies’ stock. Another fund that has placed big wagers on these companies is Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, who owns about $1.1 billion in Valeant’s stock, and more than $600 million in Twenty-First Century Fox’s stock.

Viking Global is a New York-based hedge fund managed by one of the most successful Tiger cubs, Norwegian Ole Andreas Halvorsen. The fund follows a bottom-up stock picking approach, and invests primarily on services stocks (about 34% of its equity portfolio). Other popular sectors within the fund’s holdings are healthcare (19%), technology (18%) and basic materials (13%). Its portfolio is currently valued at more than $23 billion.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned.

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