Tiger Cub Lee Ainslie’s Top Stock Picks

Maverick Capital Ltd. is an investment advisor and private investment fund that uses a Long/short approach to invest in equity products. The firm was founded in 1993 by Lee Ainslie.

Maverick Capital’s portfolio is mainly invested in consumer discretionary and information technology stocks, each of which accounts for approximately a quarter of the fund’s holdings. For the quarter ended on September, the fund made major purchases in some of its stocks, including Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR), The Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE:UHS).

The smart money sentiment is an important metric that can be used to assess the long-term profitability of a stock. While there are thousands of stocks trading daily on the market, taking a look at what hedge funds think about certain companies can narrow down the search significantly. At Insider Monkey, we track more than 700 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details here).

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Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) stock has advanced 3% this year so far. However, it offers healthy dividend yield of 3.73%. The stock accounted for 8.58% of Maverick Capital’s portfolio. For the quarter ended on 30th September, 2016, the investment fund boosted its holding of the stock by 16% to  21.38 million shares. The fund’s holding amounted to $724 million. Of the hedge funds in our database, 94 funds currently hold $5.66 billion worth of Pfizer shares in their portfolio at the end of the June quarter, which equals to 2.70% of the outstanding shares. Pfizer announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Texas Health and Human Services Commissions for revealing the confidential drug pricing information illegally.

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Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) stock gained 3% in this year so far. Maverick Capital boosted its holding of the stock by 23% during the quarter ended on 30th September, 2016. The fund held $702 million worth of Philip Morris International stock at the end of the quarter, forming 8.32% of its portfolio. Maverick Capital had 7.22 million shares of the company in its portfolio at the end of the period. Among the funds we track, 47 funds held $4.61 billion worth of  Philip Morris International’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 2.90% of its outstanding stock. The company stock recently received rating upgrade from CLSA. Its new rating is Buy and the target price for the stock has been set at $105 per share.

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Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR) stock formed 7.13% of Maverick Capital’s portfolio at the end of September quarter. The fund held 21.368 million shares of the company with the market value of $602 million, which it initiated in Q3.  The number of funds from our hedge fund database long Sabre Corp was at 36 in the quarter ending June. The total value of their holdings stood at $2.07 billion, in comparison to $2.27 billion held by 38 funds at the end of previous quarter. Sabre Corp recently suffered technical glitch which affected operations at various airlines including US Airlines and Alaska Air Group Inc. The issue was, however, quickly resolved.

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The Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) stock gained 20.43% this year so far. Maverick Capital boosted its holding of the stock by 8% during the September quarter to 408,702 shares. The market value of the holding stands at $601.401 million and forms 8% of Maverick Capital’s portfolio. 85 hedge funds from our database have positions in The Priceline Group, with total holdings of about $7.24 billion as on the end of June quarter, amounting to about 11.70% of the company’s outstanding stock. The company reported its third quarter EPS at $31.89, beating consensus estimate of $29.92. Its revenue for the quarter was reported at $3.69 billion, surpassing street expectation of $3.6 billion. For the best vacation planning, read our guide here.

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Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE:UHS) stock has climbed 3.2% this year as it also saw a 65% increase in its holding by Maverick Capital. The investment firm held 4.584 million shares of Universal Health Services worth $564.885 million as on the end of September quarter. 42 hedge funds we track held about $1.10 billion of Universal Health Services stock as on the end of June quarter, in comparison to 38 funds holding stock worth $1.08 billion the previous quarter. The company reported its third quarter earnings at $3.8 million or $0.28 per share.

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