Billionaire Lee Ainslie Shows His Investing Acumen In Winners And Losers: Stock Picks Up 8.4% in Q1

Quietly Winning

One of Ainsley’s lesser known picks is Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc (NYSE:SC). A number of banks recently initiated coverage on Santander Consumer USA Holdings (NYSE:SC) with Citigroup (C) even issuing a buy rating on the vehicle finance company and a $29 price target. Maverick Capital is one of the biggest shareholders among the funds we track holding 14.45 million shares valued at $283 million and accounting for 4.4% of the firm’s portfolio. Santander Consumer USA Holdings (NYSE:SC) was one of the firm’s 12 double-digit gainers surging 18% in the first quarter.

Buy With Conviction

Another big gainer was Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC). Ainslie led the big push into the construction aggregate producer in the last quarter of 2014 more than tripling the firm’s position in Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) before year end. By the beginning of 2015, the firm held 2.8 million shares of  Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) valuing it at almost $186 million. The stock accounted for 2.9% of the firm’s portfolio and surged 28.4% for the first quarter of 2015.

Cut The Losers

Ainslie showed his investing prowess in not just his winners, but also his losers. As Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) began to deal with fraud allegations toward the end of 2014, Ainslie cut the firm’s position in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) by 89%. Fraud or no fraud, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) continued to drop in the first quarter of 2015 by another 20%, but Maverick only held 250,000 shares for a $26 million investment, a mere 0.4% position in the portfolio.

Disclosure: none