Multi-Billion Dollar Hedge Fund’s Favorite Stocks: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), ConocoPhillips (COP)

Next up we have Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), which saw Overdeck and Siegel up their stake by more than 2,500% last quarter. Of the 450 hedge funds we track, 48 have joined this duo in Occidental, including T. Boone Pickens, Dmitry Balyasny and Ray Dalio. The key bullish thesis behind this integrated oil and gas giant is its ability to grow production at a quicker rate than many of its larger peers. The sell-side forecasts EPS expansion of 45% this year alone—the fourth highest rate in its industry. Occidental has already returned 9.1% since the start of 2013, and the Street’s average price target is 19-20% higher than its current trading price near the $83 mark.

Vodafone rounds out this top five after Two Sigma upped its stake by more than sixty­fold last quarter. Like Microsoft, this stock dropped by double-digit percentage points in Q4, likely prompting Overdeck and Siegel to buy on the dip. Vodafone has been criticized for its 4G-deployment lag in the past, but it has recently purchased a boatload of spectrum in the UK, indicating that slow and steady may actually win this race (or at least be kinder to investors’ portfolios).

At a lowly 1.1 times book and a dividend yield of 4.1%, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Vodafone at the moment, and key hedgies like Paul Tudor Jones and Israel Englander were also bullish last quarter. With results like these, it’s difficult to conceive why retail investors would not pay attention to the smart money.

Click here to learn more about Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Newsletter

Insider Monkey’s small-cap strategy returned 25.4% between September 2012 and January 2013 versus 7.4% for the S&P 500 index. Try it now by clicking the link above.

Disclosure: none