Both investors have a significant exposure to the healthcare sector and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is their common stock pick. According to their latest 13F filings, AQR Capital Management’s position in the biopharmaceutical company includes 4.11 million shares valued at $403.77 million. Renaissance Technologies maintains an equally large position with 4.03 million shares worth $395.67 million. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is facing some stringent competition in the Hepatitis C virus market with the entrance of other competitors, including AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK). However, the entrance of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in the HCV market is unlikely to rage any pricing wars that happened with the entrance of AbbVie last year. The biopharmaceutical company also has Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors and Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors among its shareholders.
Then there is Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), in which Renaissance Technologies and AQR Capital Management own 1.52 million shares valued at $243.62 million and 1.81 million shares with a value of $289.63 million respectively. Last month, the biotechnology company released encouraging results from the Phase 2 study of its episodic migraine prevention drug, AMG334. The study involving 383 patients, showed that a 70mg monthly dose of the drug reduced average monthly migraine days by 4.9 days, against a baseline average of 8.7 days. A significantly higher safety profile for the drug is likely to open new market for the company, as shown in its present results. Dan Loeb’s Third Point owns a total of 10 million shares of Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) as of the end of the first quarter.
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PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) was also in the equity portfolios of Renaissance Technologies and AQR Capital Management, with the former holding 2.30 million shares and the latter owning 2.47 million shares. The stock of the beverage-maker have remained almost flat year-to-date and it has an average “Buy” rating with 12-months price target of $106.48. Yacktman Asset Management and Trian Partners are the two largest shareholders of PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) among the funds tracked at Insider Monkey.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is another technology pick of Renaissance and AQR, whose stock declined by 12.24% year-to-date. Renaissance Technologies owns 6.87 million shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) valued at $214.86 million and AQR Capital Management owns 9.96 million shares valued at $311.58 million, as of the end of March. The chipmaker is struggling with a lower demand in the PC market and the company confirmed recent round of layoffs with an undisclosed reduction in headcount. Aside from Renaissance and AQR, First Eagle Investment Management and Fisher Asset Management also hold large stakes in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC).
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