Wary of Forthcoming U.S Recession, John Burbank Sold Off These 5 Stocks in Q1

Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT)

Moving on, Passport Capital sold all of its 1.2 million Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT) shares during the first quarter, after having just initiated the position in the fourth quarter of 2015. The stock of the $36.4 billion agribusiness is trading nearly sideways since the start of January. The company expects a melange of factors, including unfavorable weather, low commodity prices, and tight credit conditions in the agricultural sector to adversely affect its future profitability. Moreover, a stronger dollar and a slide in its Latin American business segment during the first quarter led to a fifth-consecutive quarter of declining sales, which stood at $3.74 billion in the first quarter after a 7% year-over-year fall. Syngenta does have a suitor in the form of China National Chemical Corp, which offered to buy the Switzerland-based company for $43 billion in February and has now extended its offer until July, with the possibility of further extensions until November. Robert Emil Zoellner‘s Alpine Associates sees upside to this saga, as it initiated a position amounting to 1.42 million Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT) shares during the first quarter.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)

A total of 550,020 Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares were slashed from Passport Capital’s equity portfolio during the first quarter. If the equity market turns south, the growth stocks are the ones that are hit the hardest, which gives some perspective to Mr. Burbank’s move. Netflix posted first quarter earnings of $0.06 per share on revenue of $1.96 billion, beating EPS estimates by $0.10, but missing revenue estimates by $10 million. The company had 81 million members at the end of March, which was also lower than analysts’ expectations. With about 18 million Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares valued at $1.84 billion in its portfolio, Chase Coleman‘s Tiger Global Management is the largest stockholder of the company in our database.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL)

Passport Capital’s Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) holding consisted of 1.7 million shares on December 31 and represented 1.43% of the value of the firm’s portfolio before being liquidated in the first quarter. Following the downtrend in the airlines industry, Delta’s stock has also slumped this year, by more than 14%. Moody’s recently assigned a Baa3 issuer rating to the company’s credit, with a stable outlook, meaning upward movement is unlikely for some time. Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners trimmed its stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) by 1% to 25.99 million shares during the first quarter.

Disclosure: None