On September 30, 2018, Renaissance Technologies’ portfolio was valued around $97.27 billion and it was very diversified, as usual. The largest position was in Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), a company that offers Internet infrastructure services. This position was worth $1.13 billion, on the account of 7,037,800 shares outstanding. At the end of the Q3 2018, there were 29 smart investors from our database long this stock, which is up by 4 from the previous quarter. Verisign has a market cap of $20.14 billion, and over the past six months, its stock price gained 10.20%, currently trading at $166.61. Among the fund’s top 20 positions at the end of Q3 was also Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB), which was the second among 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds in Q3 of 2018.
The second biggest stake the fund held in Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN), counting 2,778,381 shares, worth $1.09 billion. Align Technology is a medical device company, mostly known by its innovative product called Invisalign clear aligners. Over the past 12, months, the company’s stock lost 16%, and, at the moment of writing, it is trading at $227.37. Its market cap is around $18.18 billion. The company recently announced that it will deliver its fourth quarter of 2018 financial results on January 29th. For the third quarter 2018, the company disclosed earnings per diluted share of $1.24 versus EPS of $1.1 for the corresponding quarter in 2017. Align Technology also reported total net revenue of $427.09 million for Q3 2018, compared to $385.27 million for the third quarter in 2017. On September 30, 2018, 37 hedge funds reported long positions in this company, up by 1 from one quarter earlier.
The biggest new addition to the Renaissance Technologies’ equity portfolio in the third quarter of 2018 was JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). The fund initiated a stake worth $231.88 million, by acquiring 2.05 million shares. The second biggest new position the fund obtained in Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which was worth $223.25 million, on the account of 184,948 shares. During the third quarter, the fund also purchased 4.05 million shares of The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO), obtaining in that manner a position with a value of $186.86 million, which was the third largest addition to its portfolio in this quarter.
During the third quarter of 2018, the fund also lost faith in some of the companies that they’ve already invested in previously and decided to sell its entire positions. Among the biggest drops were Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT). The fund sold 3.82 million Apple’s shares, 183,555 Amazon’s shares, and 3.32 million Walmart’ shares.
Disclosure: None
This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
