We know Ken Fisher from his New York Times Best Seller business books, market beating ideas, which he has shared in his column in Forbes magazine since 1984 and his fund Fisher Asset Management. According to the latest filing, the fund has a total of 605 positions in its 13F portfolio, with an aggregate value of $50.05 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2015. We have determined top three picks of Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management which saw insider purchases over the past three months. As of the end of first quarter of 2015, Ken Fisher’s favorite picks with recent insider purchases were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE).
Hedge funds allocate huge research budgets and resources for picking the best stocks in the market. We can learn their stock picks from their SEC filings. We are tracking more than 700 hedge funds, including Fisher Asset Management. We have developed a small-cap strategy consisting of 15 most-popular small-cap stocks among these hedge funds. During the last 2.5 years, these top 15 small-cap ideas of hedge funds generated a cumulative return of 131.4% vs. S&P 500 ETF (SPY)’s return of 57.2% in the same time period (read the details here).
Ken Fisher held a $942.68 million stake in Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) at the end of the first quarter of 2015, which contained 8.30 million shares. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) is a major player in the U.S. home improvement industry; and leads the market with around 27.2% market share. The company directly benefits from the growth in the housing market. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates home sales to rise by 6.4% in 2015 and 4.1% in 2016. Moreover, Home Depot has recently announced share repurchase authorization of $18 billion and increased quarterly dividend by 26% to $0.59 cents per share. On March 27, Wayne Hewett, a director of Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), bought 350 shares at an average price of $113.68 per share. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) also enjoys a significant popularity among hedge funds. Phill Gross’ Adage Capital Management, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management and John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited disclosed large positions in the company in their latest 13F filings.
Ken Fisher’s other favorite pick, which saw a recent insider transaction, is American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). The investor holds 11.37 million shares, worth $888 million. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is a global financial services company which operates in four segments including U.S. Card Services, International Card Services, Global Commercial Services, and Global Network and Merchant Services. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) disclosed net income of $1.5 billion for first-quarter of 2015, up 6 percent from $1.4 billion a year ago.
American Express’ stock currently trades at 13.7 times earnings, which is a significant discount to peers like Visa Inc (NYSE:V) with a P/E ratio of 29 and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) with a P/E of 28. The stock has lost 15.8% since the end of 2014. In the last decade, American Express increased its revenue by 47% and net income by 57%. At the end of February, Jeffrey Campbell, the CFO of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), has acquired some 25,000 shares of the company at $83.21 per unit. Warren Buffett is a major shareholder of the company, holding 151.61 million shares as of the end of 2014.
Ken Fisher’s position in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) remained almost unchanged during the quarter at 30.3 million shares, which had a value of $753 million at the end of March. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) operates in seven segments including power and water, oil and gas, energy management, aviation, healthcare, transportation, and capital. The company has recently announced the sale of most GE Capital assets in accordance with its decision of reducing the size of its financial businesses. For the first quarter of 2015, the company disclosed total industrial segment revenues of $24.4 billion and operating profit of $3.6 billion versus $24.5 billion and $3.3 billion a year earlier.
There are four directors, who disclosed the acquisition of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)’s shares in the last three months. James Rohr and Marijn Dekkers acquired 20,000 shares each at $27.15 and $26.93 per share respectively. Mary Schapiro bought 7,000 shares at $27.22 per unit, and Francisco Dsouza purchased 36,500 shares at $27.26. Among the funds we track, Phill Gross And Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway are just a few of the hedge funds which have positions in the company.
Disclosure: None
