Grandmaster Patrick Wolff’s Top Stocks to Checkmate the Market With

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) falls from grace like a promoted pawn being demoted back into its lowly, peasant form. Grandmaster’s holding in the tech giant drops to third from first after the fund slashed it by 22% during the quarter to 389,338 shares, which held a value of $15.83 million as of the end of March. It didn’t help matters that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s shares also tumbled by nearly 12% during the quarter. The demise of share value was short-lived however, as Microsoft has rebounded with a big second quarter, leaving it up by 3% year-to-date. With billions of dollars in cash, rumors have swirled around Microsoft concerning what its next big move will or should be, with some experts suggesting it should strengthen its Internet of Things segment by acquiring Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), though other analysts think it can do better than that. Jeffrey Ubben, whose fund has representation on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s board, will have some influence over that next move, whatever it may be. He remains the largest shareholder of Microsoft in our database.

Grandmaster’s position in Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:MTN) moves up a spot to fourth in value at $15.63 million, with the position decreased by 8% during the quarter to 151,113 shares. Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:MTN) was another strong performer for Grandmaster during the first quarter, returning 14.20%. The Bloomfield, Colorado resort operator had a big quarter for its fiscal second quarter of 2015, posting earnings of $3.10 per share that nearly doubled its year-ago earnings of $1.60. Vail Resorts also announced a big increase to its dividends, lifting its most recent dividend payment on March 27 to $0.62 from $0.42 it had paid out throughout 2014. Grandmaster had the greatest exposure to Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:MTN) among the funds in our database, followed by Richard McGuire’s Marcato Capital Management.

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