Nehal Chopra’s New Stock Picks Include Pinnacle Foods Inc (PF), Zayo Group Holdings Inc (ZAYO), Calpine Corporation (CPN)

Nehal Chopra’s Ratan Capital Group has filed its 13F with the SEC for the reporting period of March 31. Chopra’s public equity portfolio has become increasingly concentrated in recent quarters, which makes her large move into four new stocks rather compelling. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Chopra ran one of the top performing funds in our database during the first quarter, trumping other hedge funds with net returns of 22.5% according to CNBC. While Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) and Actavis plc (NYSE:ACT) remain her top picks and her exposure to the healthcare industry remains above 50%, she made four new purchases during the first quarter which we’ll look at in this article, those purchases being in Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT), Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF), Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO), and Calpine Corporation (NYSE:CPN).

Steve Cukrov / Shutterstock.com

Steve Cukrov / Shutterstock.com

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With 1.01 million shares valued at $88.12 million, Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT) is the largest new holding in the portfolio of Ratan Capital Group. Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT) is also the most popular stock in the consumer non-durables industry, with 70 investment managers tracked by Insider Monkey having positions in the packaged food company. Earlier in March, the packaged food & beverage company entered into a definitive merger agreement with H.J. Heinz Company, under which the newly-merged company will be called The Kraft Heinz Company. This combined company will bring together brands like Kraft, Heinz, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, and Ore-Ida under one roof. James Dinan‘s York Capital Management and Peter Adam Hochfelder’s Brahman Capital hold large positions in Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT).

Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) comes in at number two in terms of the top new stock picks of Chopra as she opened a position consisting of 1.78 million shares of the food manufacturer, valued at $72.56 million. Shares of the baking company have grown 20.06% year-to-date and are currently trading close to their 52-week high of $43.12.  Bob Gamgort, CEO of Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF), said during his company’s April 30 earnings call that it is looking for innovative products in the baking category and is likely to offer some premium new products in the upcoming quarter. The net earnings of Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) were up 2% for the quarter ending on March 29 as compared to the year-ago earnings of $40.7 million. Levin Capital Strategies and JANA Partners are among the major shareholders of Pinnacle Foods.

Chopra also initiated a position in Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO) amounting to 1.80 million shares valued at $50.33 million. The bandwidth infrastructure company has a market cap of $6.41 billion and its shares have declined 14.73% year-to-date. Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO) is using Hibernia Networks for 100G augmentation through Hibernia Express for its transatlantic network. After the completion of this project, Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO)’s customers will be able to use a fast, secure, and diverse transatlantic network, with this project increasing Zayo’s current network reach. The network company announced quarterly revenue of $340.7 million in its first quarter of 2015, which was 21% higher on a year-over-year basis. SPO Advisory Corp and Glade Brook Capital Partners are among the primary investors of Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO).

Calpine Corporation (NYSE:CPN) is the final new addition to the public equity portfolio of Ratan Capital Group, which owns 1.68 million shares of the company, valued at $38.42 million as of March 31. The power generation company has a market cap of $7.55 billion and its shares trade at a current P/E ratio of 8.57. Its shares have received an average “Buy” rating with a 1-year price target of $25.38. Calpine Corporation (NYSE:CPN) reported operating revenues of $1.65 billion for the first quarter of 2015, which represented a drop of 16.2% from the first quarter of 2014. At the same time, the power company was able to lower its losses to $10 million, a year-over-year reduction of 77.4%. Brahman Capital and Bill Miller‘s Legg Mason Capital Management hold positions in Calpine Corporation (NYSE:CPN).

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