Hedge Fund Manager John Horseman’s Favorite US Stocks

The second-biggest position in a U.S. stock that John Horseman had at the end of the second quarter was in Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), in which the investor held a stake of 636,200 shares valued at $55.97 million after raising its stake in the stock by 52%. The stock represents 14.40% of its total portfolio value. The McLean, Virginia-based bank holding company recently announced a planned layoff of some of its employees as it sets out to overhaul its operations across the nation. The company is also closing a number of call centers in different locations, including Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Oregon. These are among the measures that Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) is taking to enhance its profitability, coming on the heels of a 28.08% year-over-year drop in second quarter profit. Going into the second quarter, a total of 51 hedge funds out of the more than 700 that we track were long in the stock. The biggest shareholder among those, Ric Dillon‘s Diamond Hill Capital, held 3.54 million shares valued at $278.92 million after raising its position by 31% during the first trimester. Thomas E. Claugus’ GMT Capital was also long in the stock after opening a new position during the first quarter, closing the quarter with 2.28 million shares valued at $179.78 million, representing 4.35% of its total public equity portfolio. Other funds that held positions going into the second quarter were AQR Capital Management, Viking Global, and Columbus Circle Investors.

Finally, let’s look at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), in which Horseman Capital Management held a total of 241,500 shares with a market value of $50.42 million after raising its position in the stock by 57% during the first three months of this year. The Manhattan, New York-based investment banking company is betting on Pepperfry.com, an Indian startup that sells furniture online. The $89.58 billion company is set to invest up to $100 million in the startup. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) has posted solid share price growth during the year, going up by 7% year-to-date. The company also recently announced a deal to acquire Imprint Capital, which is an impact investing firm based in San Francisco. Going into the second quarter of 2015, billionaire investor Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway remained the biggest shareholder of the company in our database, holding 12.63 million shares with a market value of $2.37 billion. Lansdowne Partners again followed Buffett’s lead in a financial stock, increasing its stake in the equity to 6.31 million shares valued at $1.19 billion during the first quarter.

Disclosure: None