Exxon Mobil, Google Inc (GOOG), and More: Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s New Stock Picks

Druckenmiller also liked Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), reporting a position of 1.2 million shares in the discount retailer. In its most recent fiscal quarter, Target experienced a double-digit earnings growth rate compared to the same period in the previous year, and as might be expected the stock’s beta is relatively low at 0.5. At a market capitalization of $40 billion, it’s another cheap looking stock at 14 times trailing earnings. Since the company is currently growing nicely despite competition from peers like Walmart and Amazon, we’d expect that trend to continue and so it might be a good value play as well.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) was another new pick. Google’s earnings have been down as the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings is yet to pay off in terms of the bottom line, but it’s generally expected both by analysts and by the market that growth will resume next year (the stock trades at 22 times trailing earnings). Billionaire- and Tiger Cub- Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital cut its stake in Google during the third quarter but still reported owning 1.1 million shares, making it the second largest position by market value in the fund’s 13F portfolio (find more of Mandel’s favorite stocks). We think it’s a good idea to wait for more developments from Google before making a long-term decision on the stock.

Druckenmiller also added 1.2 million shares of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) to his portfolio. The entertainment company’s business has been about flat, but it too seems to have considerable growth expectations: it carries trailing and forward P/E multiples of 17 and 13, respectively. If Time Warner does hit its earnings targets for next year then it might well turn out to be a good buy, but since that would be such an improvement over what the company has done on a trailing basis- and at the moment the growth rates do not look good- we’d avoid the stock.