Visteon Corp (VC), DIRECTV (DTV), Meritor Inc (MTOR): Billionaire Tom Sandell’s Top Picks

Visteon Corp (NYSE:VC) checks in at third, a company that has recently considered splitting itself, which analyst Jim Cramer described at the time as a move that would be great for shareholders, with him considering the sum of the company undervalued in relation to its parts. Shares spiked 5% after the auto parts maker made that announcement.

Sandell has been invested in the company since late 2012, and further increased its exposure to it by 35% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Following the share price spike in early September, Visteon sagged over 20% in the following month, which may have provided the perfect opportunity for Sandell to move on it. Shares have since rebounded by more than 15%. Solus Alternative Asset Management remained the largest Visteon Corp (NYSE:VC) shareholder among funds we track, with 2.08 million shares, despite trimming their exposure by 25% during the fourth quarter.

DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) lands in fourth, and was been a popular choice among the hedge funds we track, as it became a merger arbitrage play following the announcement earlier in the year that AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) would purchase it for $48.5 billion. 63 funds had a position in the stock, up from 57 at the end of the third quarter, and the funds’ capital investment increased by $1 billion.

Sandell owned 550,600 shares, unchanged from the previous quarter, when it purchased the majority of those after opening the position in the second quarter of 2014. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway remained the largest shareholder of DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) with 31.53 million shares, while Highfields Capital Management owned 12.14 million shares, an increase of 15% from the end of the previous quarter.

Meritor Inc (NYSE:MTOR) was Sandell’s fifth most valuable holding, the 2.89 million shares it held at the end of the year being worth $43.72 million. Sandell lowered its exposure to Meritor by 15% during the quarter after also lowering it by 16% during the third quarter. That was likely a case of taking some profit from a stock it held since late 2013, which had gained 40% to 50% by the middle of 2014. Meritor is down 4.75% on the year, on guidance of $1.20 to $1.30 in earnings per share, which came in below estimates of $1.34, while revenue was also short of estimates.

The maker of automobile parts, which recently unveiled several new product innovations including the first self-inflating tire system for linehaul tractors, counts billionaires Marc Lasry and Larry Robbins among its largest investors, as the two owned 7.81 million shares and 6.52 million shares respectively.

Disclosure: None