American Express Company (AXP), Discover Financial Services (DFS): What’s This Mega-Investor Buying?

Samlyn Capital was founded in 2007 by Robert Pohly formally at Sigma Capital. When Pohly left Sigma, he left with eight of their employees and founded the fund, which has more than $2 billion in its equity portfolio alone. Samlyn invests in value stocks across all sectors. According to its last 13F filing with the SEC, Samlyn added to those positions with these five new stocks.  Let take a look at the new positions, because it’s always important to track the market-beating potential of hedge fund sentiment.

During the fourth quarter of 2012, Pohly bought 1.7 million shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). Considered to be the gold standard among high-income consumers, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) recently introduced the Bluebird prepaid card, sold at Wal-Mart stores, to provide an alternative for consumers dissatisfied with the fees and restrictions at large retail banks. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) recently announced that it will now offer paper checks and FDIC insurance for Bluebird which will now enable consumers to deposit Social Security and government-issued checks directly onto the card.  The new strategy will help boost revenues which have been relatively flat over the past 3 years –with costs up 2.1% for the 4Q 2012, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)’s bottom line dropped 8%.

The next new addition is Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC), at 2 million shares. Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC) owns and operates facilities such as acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic imaging centers.  Despite a very good earnings report, Tenet has come under intense pressure lately from investors moving away from hospital stocks like Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC) and HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE:HCA) and into insurers following the government’s decision on new Medicare Advantage rates, which will increase the reimbursement rate by 3.3% for health insurers that offer coverage through the Medicare Advantage program. Tenet fell 9% in one day on the news.

At number three is Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ). With its dominant position among Canadian crude oil and natural gas producers and a very low debt/equity ratio, Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ) is well-positioned to grow substantially as the western Canadian oil sands continue to be developed.  Unfortunately, the company announced disappointing 4Q earnings with net income down 57% and revenue down 12%.