Billionaire Activist Paul Singer’s Stock Picks Deliver Solid Q1

#3 Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of December 31): 6.71 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of December 31): $507.35 Million

Elliott hiked its Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) holding by 14% during the fourth quarter, lifting the value of the holding to over $500 million. It has grown even greater since then, as the stock price of the market technology solutions designer and marketer advanced by 5.14% during the first quarter. Elliott has been working with Citrix Systems’ management since its activist campaign began last June, when it hired two investment banks to conduct due diligence on the company. Citrix not only beat top and bottom-line estimates with its fourth quarter financial results, but its guidance for the first quarter was also better than the consensus. AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, held about 1.86 million shares of Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) at the end of last year.

#2 Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of December 31): 67.1 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of December 31): $662.27 Million

Elliott’s new Alcoa stake rose by more than 2% during the January-to-March period. Furthermore, the fund lifted its Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) holding to 7.4% of the company’s outstanding shares earlier this year, from 5.1% held at the end of December. Elliott immediately received representation on the company’s Board after the fund expressed its desire to help management work on splitting the company into two, given rock bottom aluminium prices, which are trading at nearly six-year lows. Although Alcoa managed to beat the bottom-line estimates in its first quarter financial results, it lagged behind expectations when it came to its top-line results. Moreover, Alcoa cut its outlook for the aerospace market and now expects growth to come in between 6% and 8%, compared to the 8%-to-9% range provided prevously. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asia (Singapore) held about 2.63 million shares of Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) at the end of December.

#1 EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of December 31): 42.23 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of December 31): $1.08 Billion

Elliott had been campaigning for a breakup of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) since 2014, pushing the company to spin off its VMware business. A nine-month standstill agreement was reached in early 2015 that kept those discussions private, before Elliott began putting public pressure on the company again late last year. Instead, EMC and its VMware stake, which had yet to be spun-off, is set to be acquired by Dell. It has been reported that EMC is planning to raise about $6 billion by selling its Documentum business in order to lessen Dell’s debt burden when it comes to the $67 billion merger deal, of which $50 billion will be financed through debt. Billionaire Seth Klarman‘s Baupost Group held about 29.25 million shares of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) at the end of last year.

Disclosure: None