Billionaire Paul Singer’s Long-Term Picks

#2 EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC)

– Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of September 30): 34 Million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $821.44 Million

Moving on, the changes that Elliott Management sought in EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) after initiating a stake in the company during the second quarter of 2014 finally yielded positive results in October last year. On October 12, 2015, Dell announced that it has agreed to buy EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) and its stake in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) for $67 billion, the largest acquisition in the technology sector ever. It seems other event-driven hedge funds were also anticipating this deal and that’s why 11 more hedge funds covered by Insider Monkey became bullish on the company during the third quarter and the aggregate value of hedge funds’ holdings in the company also saw a 32% jump to $3.36 billion during the same period.

In a recent regulatory filing, EMC Corporation revealed that it plans to lay-off several of its employees in 2016 and thereby intends to save $850 million in annual costs. Ahead of the merger, the stock of EMC Corporation is currently trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 12.78, which is  low for a company that is about to get acquired.

On January 7, analysts at Gabelli reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on EMC Corporation’s stock. Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group was among the funds that increased its stake in the company by 50% during the July-September period; it held 7.44 million shares of EMC Corporation at the end of September.