Billionaire Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asia (Singapore)’s 13F Posts Strong Returns Betting on Commodities

#4 Ashland Inc (NYSE:ASH)

– Shares Owned by Point72 Asia (Singapore) (as of December 31): 350,000

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $36 million

Ashland Inc (NYSE:ASH) is another company in this list, which is in the process of splitting its business. In September last year, the company announced a tax-free spin-off of its lubricant business Valvoline, which it expects to get completed by early-2017. Owing largely to the 15% rally they saw in March, shares of Ashland Inc (NYSE:ASH) managed to end the first quarter up by 7.5% However, investors expect the stock to move higher from here as the date for Valvoline spin-off approaches. The reason for their bullishness is the sum-of-parts valuation of Ashland Inc done by several analysts in the last few months, which shows that Ashland and Valvoline together are worth $140-$160 per share, which represents a potential upside of 27% – 45% from the stock’s current trading price. On March 24, analysts at Credit Suisse initiated coverage on the stock with an ‘Outperform’ rating and $118 price target. With ownership of over 1.5 million shares of the company, Leon Copperman‘s Omega Advisors was the largest shareholder of Ashland at the end of December among the funds tracked by us.

#3 Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)

– Shares Owned by Point72 Asia (Singapore) (as of December 31): 1 million

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $40.3 million

Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE), another metal company, has also seen its stock soaring this year. However, the reason Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE)’s stock ended the first quarter with gains over 18% is actually twofold. Apart from the rally in steel prices, a lot of appreciation that the stock has seen has come from US government decision, on March 1, to impose anti-dumping duties on steel imports from foreign countries. On March 23, two of the leading commodity analysts on Wall Street provided their outlook for steel prices and their views on Nucor’s stock, which were in stark contrast to each other. In his note, Credit Suisse analyst Curt Woodworth stated that steel prices will continue to rise through the end of the second quarter due to growing demand and upped his price target on Nucor’s stock to $45 from $42 while keeping his rating on it unchanged at ‘Neutral’. However, Deutsche Bank analyst Jorge Berstain, who thinks that the rally commodities have seen so far this year will not last, downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’. Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann‘s 3G Capital initiated a stake in Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) during the fourth quarter by purchasing 800,000 shares of the company.