$20B Farallon Capital Is Betting Big On Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR)

Andrew J.M. Spokes is the manager of Farallon Capital Management, after the retirement of Thomas Steyer (below) in 2012.  Farallon was founded in 1986 by Steyer, who was a former employee at Morgan Stanley, working in the mergers and acquisitions department. Recently, the hedge fund disclosed all of its second-quarter equity positions in a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It is important to pay attention to the best picks of the best hedge funds; discover why here. Let’s take a look at Spokes and his team’s top five positions from Q2.

Up first is News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), in which the hedge fund holds a $301.7 million position, or about 9.3 million shares. During the second quarter, Farallon increased its stake in News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 26% or about 1.9 million shares. The stock has an almost flat year-to-date return, which amounts to about 0.5%. Its forward P/E is 31.

In Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Andrew Spokes’ hedge fund disclosed ownership of 11.3 million shares, the value of the stake amounting to $283.1 million. In the previous filing, Farallon’s stake in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) involved 9.7 million shares, and was worth $229.2 million. Yahoo’s stock has posted a year-to-date return of over 40%, while its forward P/E and PEG ratios are at 16.6x and 0.7 respectively–both very attractively priced.

Aside from Farallon, many other notable hedge funds hold shares of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), such as Dan Loeb’s Third Point and Jeffrey Altman’s Owl Creek Asset Management.

Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP), and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) are the next two companies in Farallon’s 13F. In this way, the hedge fund reported 12.2 million shares of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP) and 16.8 million shares of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). The value of the stakes amount to $260.3 and $224.2 million respectively. The stock of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (NYSE:HPP) has a year-to-date return of almost -1%, while Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)’s YTD return amounts to over 35%.

Lastly, we have the 1.8 million shares held by Farallon in Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), worth $223 million. It is a new position for Spokes & Co, who join peers Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management in the company.

With 82 positions, the hedge fund’s Q2 13F amounts to $5.2 billion, up from its first-quarter value of $4.9 billion.

Continue reading Insider Monkey for more updates as the filings roll in.

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