Billionaire Stephen Mandel’s Top Picks: Priceline Group Inc (PCLN), JD.Com Inc (ADR) (JD), Mastercard Inc (MA) & Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX)

Billionaire Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital has recently disclosed its equity portfolio in its latest 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the end of the first quarter of 2015. Mr. Mandel is a bottom-up investor with great stock picking skills. He established Lone Pine Capital in 1997, after leaving the legendary investor Julian Robertson. Mr. Mandel is one of the most successful of the Tiger cubs, a term used for Tiger Management’s past employees and funds that have been seeded by Robertson. Lone Pine Capital is a classic long/short equity hedge fund, with $17 billion in assets under management (AUM). In its 13F, Lone Pine Capital revealed a total of 54 positions, with a reported value of $26.4 billion. The fund mainly focuses on technology and consumer stocks and its top holdings, in terms of value, are represented by Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN), JD.Com Inc (ADR)(NASDAQ:JD), Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX).

Lone Pine Capital 2014 Q3 Investor Letter

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Lone Pine Capital’s top holding is represented by Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN), a $63-billion market cap provider of online travel and related services. Lone Pine Capital disclosed ownership of 1.33 million shares, down from 1.40 million shares previously held by the fund. The stake is valued at $1.5 billion. During the past calendar year, Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN)’s stock lost 2.34% On the other hand, the stock gained 5.18% year-to-date (YTD). For the first quarter of 2015, Priceline posted net income of $8.12 per diluted share, up from $7.81 in 2014. The company’s gross travel bookings stood at $13.8 billion, up by 12% compared to the same period a year ago. Other investors that see value in Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) include Eric W. Mandelblatt’s Soroban Capital Partners, which held 520,610 shares of the company at the end of the first quarter.

The second position is held by JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD), in which Lone Pine Capital boosted its stake by over 300% to 38.53 million shares from 8.82 million shares held previously. The stake is valued at $1.13 billion. JD.Com is an e-commerce company engaged in online direct sales, and has a market cap of $47.24 billion. The company’s stock rose by 61.39% during the past year, plus 26.75% during the first quarter of 2015. JD.Com is planning to invest about $168 million to acquire a 10% stake in Kingdee International Software Group, an e-commerce company headquartered in Shenzhen, China. JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) also announced its plans to invest $350 million in Tuniu Corp., an online leisure travel company in China. This investment will make JD the largest shareholder of Tuniu.com, with a 27.50% stake. Moore Global Investments, led by billionaire Louis Bacon, was also bullish on JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) during the first quarter, boosting its position in the company to 2.17 million shares from 200,000 shares.

On the third spot is Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), in which Lone Pine Capital cut its stake to 12.97 million shares, worth $1.12 billion, from 20.03 million shares held earlier. The stock price of the company has risen by 26.43% since May 2014. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) has recently agreed to acquire Applied Predictive Technologies Inc. for $600 million. This acquisition is part of the company’s plans to expand technology offerings for merchants. The deal is likely to be completed in the second quarter of 2015. The company has also witnessed some insider trading as Ajay Banga, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, unloaded 99,870 shares of the company at an average price of $91.5 per share. Other investors of Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) include Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner, which owns 10.02 million shares as of the end of the first quarter.

On the fourth and last spot is Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), a $77-billion multinational specialty pharmaceutical company. Valeant posted first-quarter 2015 net income of $73.7 million, versus a net loss of $22.6 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue for the quarter rose by 16% to $2.2 billion from $1.9 billion a year ago. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX)’s stock advanced by 80.24% over the last year, and jumped by 38.79% during the first quarter. Valeant seems be to a favorite stock of many investors. In the first quarter of 2015, billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square started a new position in Valeant, owning 19.47 million shares, valued at $3.87 billion.

Disclosure: none