Hedge Fund Manager Boykin Curry’s Top Stock Picks

Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYK). Eagle kept its position about constant at 13 million shares of stock. Liberty Global is up 52% in the last year, bringing it to a market capitalization of almost $17 billion. Revenue was up marginally in the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in the previous year. Tiger Cub Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management reported a 28% increase in the size of its own Liberty Global position, to a total of 6.5 million shares.

Aon PLC (NYSE:AON). The $18 billion market cap insurance broker was another of Curry’s top picks as his fund owned over 13 million shares at the end of the quarter. The stock looks a bit expensive on a trailing basis with a P/E of 20, but analyst expectations are for higher earnings this year and so the current valuation is only 12 times consensus for 2013.  Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, had over $1.3 billion invested in the stock (find more stocks Southeastern had $1 billion invested in).

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). Eagle owned 8.6 million shares of Wal-Mart, which was one of the most popular retail stocks among hedge funds in the third quarter (see the full top ten list). Wal-Mart of course has little correlation to the broader economy at a beta of 0.4, and its revenue and net income have been up modestly. At trailing and 2013 P/E multiples of 14 and 13, respectively, we think that it has the potential to be a good value stock.

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMSCK). A slight increase brought the fund’s position in Comcast to almost 18 million shares. Comcast has been another good investment over the last year, up 49%, and the company reported growth on both top and bottom lines in Q3 2012 versus a year earlier. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management initiated a position in Comcast between July and September (research more stocks Fisher was buying). The company’s enterprise value comes out to 6.4x trailing EBITDA.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.