Okumus Ranks 5th on Barron’s Top Hedge Funds List; Check Out Its Top Picks

#3 Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK)

 – Shares Owned by Okumus Fund Management (as of March 31): 9.18 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $110.78 million

Moving on, Okumus Fund Management inched up its stake in Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK) during the first quarter, by 2%. Shares of the identity theft protection services provider plummeted by nearly 50% last July after the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of violating a 2010 settlement with the agency and 35 state attorneys by continuing to make deceptive claims about its identity protection services. However, the stock has recovered most of those losses since then and is now trading very close to the levels it traded at before last year’s crash. In a regulatory filing submitted in late-June, billionaire Paul Singer‘s Elliott Management disclosed that it now owns a 7.6% stake in Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK). The activist hedge fund also revealed in a filing earlier in June that it has had talks with the company’s management and Board of Directors regarding “opportunities to enhance shareholder value.”

#2 The Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG)

 – Shares Owned by Okumus Fund Management (as of March 31): 7.13 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $120.45 million

The Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG) is the only company among Okumus Fund Management’s five largest equity holdings in which the fund reduced its stake during the first quarter, by 7%. Shares  of the asset management firm slumped hard in the second-half of 2015, but have been largely stable over the last four months and are currently trading up slightly in 2016. The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, which translates into a phenomenal annual dividend yield of 12.73%. For its second quarter, analysts expect The Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG) to report EPS of $0.41 on revenue of $555.9 million, which would represent stark declines from the EPS of $0.55 on revenue of $663.10 million that it had reported for the same quarter of last year. Famous short seller Jim Chanos‘ hedge fund Kynikos initiated a stake in the company during the first quarter, purchasing 276,499 shares.

#1 Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WEB)

 – Shares Owned by Okumus Fund Management (as of March 31): 7.02 million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $139.07 million

Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WEB) continued to remain Okumus Fund Management’s top equity pick at the end of the first quarter, with the fund making no change to its stake in the company during that period. Okumus Fund Management initiated its stake in Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WEB) during the third quarter of 2014, and the stock has ranked as its top stock pick nearly every quarter since. However, despite the fund’s strong performance, it’s top pick hasn’t helped much over the last two years, trading down slightly since the beginning of October 2014. Last month, Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WEB) revealed a major executive shakeup following its acquisition of Yodle, which included COO Jason Teichman leaving the company. Web.com Group’s stock currently sports an average rating of ‘Overweight’ and an average price target of $25.27 from the 12 prominent analysts and research firms on Wall Street which track it. Hedge funds that sold their entire stake in the company during the first quarter included Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Disclosure: None