Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL), Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NVO) Among Billionaire Jim Simons’ Holdings for Long-Run

Simons’ position in the $104.28 billion market-cap pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) is his second most-favored long-term holding. The stake that contains 15.61 million shares, valued at $660.81 million, is his second-largest holding as of the end of 2014. The position was trimmed by 4% during the last quarter, while prior to that it was RenTech’ largest position. The investor has been keeping Novo Nordisk among its top 10 picks since at least the second quarter of 2012. Recently, Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO)’s anti-obesity drug Saxenda has been approved by the European Commission. The company is also in the process of resubmitting New Drug Applications for the insulin treatments Tresiba and Ryzodeg and is anticipating price gains for those drugs, despite strong competition from Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY)’s Toujeo and generic drug makers. Renaissance is also the largest shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) among the funds we track, with billionaire Ken Fisher landing in second spot with 13.04 million shares.

Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:LLTC) is another position which has been in Simons’ top ten for quite some time. In its latest 13F filing, the investor reported ownership of 9.99 million of the shares, with an aggregate value of $455.35 million.With a market cap of $11 billion, Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:LLTC) is one of the smallest companies among the fund’s largest holdings. Moreover, in comparison with the previous two companies, Renaissance is not the largest shareholder of Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ:LLTC) among the funds we track; being outrun by First Eagle Asset Management with 12.27 million shares. Linear Technology has greatly outperformed the semiconductor industry in terms of return on equity at close to 39%, compared to the industry average of 16%.

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