Virgin Media Inc. (VMED), Tiffany & Co. (TIF): Billionaire Dan Loeb’s New Stock Picks From Q1

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Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED), Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), B/E Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:BEAV), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO).

Several weeks after the end of each quarter, hedge funds and other notable investors submit their 13F filings to the SEC, disclosing to the public many of their long equity positions in U.S. stocks as of the end of the quarter. We track these filings in our database, allowing us to use the included information to develop investing strategies; we have found, for example, that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds generate an average excess return of 18 percentage points per year;learn more about imitating hedge funds’ small cap picks.

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Investors can also look through 13Fs for stocks that top managers like, including those, which are new, compared to the previous filing and therefore could be taken as somewhat fresher picks. Here are the five largest positions by market value, which billionaire Dan Loeb’s Third Point;see the full filing on the SEC’s website,initiated between January and March of this year or see a history of the fund’s 13F filings:

Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED)

One of the fund’s largest holdings overall was its stake of 11 million shares in

Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED). Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) is in the process of merging with Liberty Global; merger arbitrage is a common hedge fund strategy, as while the discount to the actual transaction price is usually small the return on investment is tied to the consummation of the merger and therefore is generally independent of market returns. In addition, hedge funds can often increase these returns through high leverage. The deal is expected to close within the next couple of months.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) was another of Third Point’s new stock picks as the fund bought 2.7 million shares during Q1. Markets are pricing in high future growth at the jeweler, with trailing and forward earnings multiples of 24 and 20 respectively. In contrast to this, Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)’s fiscal year ended in January and in the fourth quarter of that year sales and net income each grew by less than 5% versus a year earlier. As such we’re not sure what Loeb sees in Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), and we’d certainly be wary of counting on more earnings growth than is expected by often optimistic analysts.

The best of the rest

Third Point reported a position of 2 million shares in B/E Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:BEAV), a $6.6 billion market cap provider of aircraft interior components such as seats and hospitality equipment. This stock is also priced for growth- specifically, it trades at 25 times trailing earnings- but business has been strong according to recent reports.

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