McDonald’s (MCD), Autodesk (ADSK), Visa (V): WCG Management’s Top Picks for Q2

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) jumps from eleventh to third position in WCG’s equity portfolio after the fund increased its holding by 333% during the first quarter. The position as of March 31 consists of 366,833 shares valued at $21.60 million. We recently ranked Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) as the fourth-most likely takeover target that hedge funds were betting on, with it being a possible takeover target of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). Overall fund ownership out of the funds we track stood at 39 at the end of 2014, with a total of $2.50 billion invested in the design software producer. Billionaire Stephen Mandel was the top shareholder of those investors. Shares of Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) dipped 2.36% in the first quarter.

The CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) holding in WCG’s equity portfolio also made a big jump, from eighth to fourth after the position was increased by 201% during the first quarter to 75,136 shares valued at $21.49 million. The top cash returns stock according to Goldman Sachs, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) has a cash return of over 22% thanks to a solid dividend yield of 1.94% and a robust share buyback program that included the repurchasing of $2 billion worth of stock in 2014. Operating in both the nitrogen and phosphate segments, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) returned 4.61% during the first quarter, underperforming its industry peers due to weak financial results. The quantitative fund D E Shaw held the largest position in CF Industries out of the funds in our database.

Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is yet another company WCG was bullish on during the first quarter, increasing its position in the credit services company by 161%. In fact of WCG’s current top 11 holdings, all of them were added to during the first quarter. WCG’s Visa Inc (NYSE:V) position now contains 277,000 shares with a value of $18.22 million. Visa was essentially flat for the quarter, returning -0.03%, a quarter during which it underwent a 4:1 stock split, a move which prompted Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Index to balance out its tech weighting. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) announces its fiscal second quarter results after the close of the market today, with analysts expecting earnings to be flat from the previous year. Billionaires Ken Fisher and Warren Buffett will be two keen observers of the results, having the two largest positions in Visa in our database.

Disclosure: None