Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Newest Stock Picks: ADT Corp (ADT), Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR)

The end of earnings season does not mean the end of excitement for us at Insider Monkey; we keep our ears to the ground for the round of 13F filings that usually post during and after each quarterly earnings season. Hedge funds are required by the SEC to disclose many of their equity, option, and bond positions, and we analyze these documents to glean the most impactful information out of them each quarter. Our research has led us to find that the most popular small cap stocks amongst hedge funds have outperformed the market by 18 percentage points per year (learn more about this phenomenon here). Billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel Advisors, LLC recently made his filing public; read on to see our take on his newest picks during Q4 2012.

Citadel’s quantitative investing model and $65bn in AUM enables the fund to trade and hold thousands of positions at a time. Out of the 790 new stocks purchased in the last quarter of 2012, ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) was given the most capital, with 0.23% of portfolio devoted to the security company. ADT commands 25% of the market share of the $13bn industry in which it operates. The company reported earnings at the end of last month, delivering a 13% rise in net earnings year over year and announcing a $600m common stock buy back from Credit Suisse International. The stock is still trading at a 15% deficit to analyst’s one year price targets. Doug Silverman of Senator Investment Group holds over $200mm of ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) (view his other holdings here).

Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR) was Citadel’s second-largest new position. The independent oil and gas company has a relatively small market cap of $2bn and operates primarily in the Louisiana Gulf Coast and in the Permian Basin. GPOR announced a public offering of 7.75mm shares of common stock in mid-February; the dilution brought on a drop in share price, contributing to the -6.3% depreciation the stock has returned since the start of 2013. Despite the near-term fall, Wall Street has high hopes for GPOR and its future site production, with most analysts issuing a Buy rating for Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR). Billionaire Jim Simons has a conservative $5.5mm invested (see his top picks here).

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) is a strong player in the CAD (computer-aided design) industry with its comprehensive and knowledgeable business solutions. Despite missing every earnings announcement in 2012, ADSK managed to beat its latest announcement in February, which came on the heels of positive ratings acknowledgement from Wedbush, RBC Capital, and Goldman Sachs in January. Higher revenues and higher earnings versus the prior-year quarter set the precedent that ADSK would like to continue in 2013, as the company guided revenue growth for this fiscal year. Two Sigma Advisors beefed up its position substantially according to its most recent 13F (check out the fund’s portfolio here).