$8 Billion Hedge Fund’s Top Energy Picks

Up by about 12.2% over the year, the $34.51 billion company hasn’t even nearly had a worse year than most of its counterparts. This also compares favorably with the Oil & Gas Transportation Services industry as a whole, which is down nearly 1.43% during the same period. With a 4.85% dividend yield, Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) is also one of the most popular high dividend companies that hedge funds have been piling into.

As part of his strategy to reduce exposure to the energy industry, Mindich slashed Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC)‘s holding in his portfolio by 97% to 56,514 shares valued at $5.10 million during the fourth quarter. The $26.27 billion company  is up by about 3.2% over the last 52 weeks. David Shaw of D E Shaw has been very bullish on Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) during the fourth quarter as he upped the holding by 38% to 10.03 million shares valued at $905.24 million.

Marathon Petroleum delivered stellar financial results for the fourth quarter including Earnings per Share (EPS) of $2.86 which beat estimates of $1.48 and revenues of $22.34 billion which were also $2.48 billion higher than expected. The stock also sports a reasonable dividend yield of 2.08% and is trading at a forward earnings multiple of 10.66.

Eton Park also held some 1.5 million shares valued at $105.6 million equivalent of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) ‘Call’ options. The hedge fund interest in the company rose during the fourth quarter as number of hedge funds, among those that we track, rose to 75 funds with aggregate investment of $7.96 billion versus 69 funds with $8.18 billion a quarter earlier. Seth Klarman‘s Baupost Group held 13.81 million shares valued at $972.03 million. Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) is up about 47% over the last year. Exports form the Sabine Pass, which is one of the two Cheniere Energy’s terminals is expected to commence by the end of 2015.

 Disclosure: none