Barry Rosenstein, Jana Partners' Latest Moves Include Qualcomm, United Rentals And Yum Brands

Large investment firms are required to disclose their long equity positions to the SEC once per quarter, via a Form 13F. Activist hedge fund Jana Partners, managed by Barry Rosenstein, filed its latest 13F on Friday, declaring an equity portfolio worth more than $17.2 billion in the market.

Over the first quarter of 2015, the fund started 29 new equity stakes, increased its holdings in another 9, trimmed its exposure to 9 more, and closed out 13 positions.

Increased Exposure

By March 31, the fund’s largest bet was placed on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY. Jana more than quadrupled its exposure to the ETF over the period, disclosing ownership of 11,150,000 shares, worth about $2.3 billion, which represent about 13.3 percent of the equity portfolio’s total value.

QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM also witnessed a substantial upsurge in Jana’s stake. The position was started over the fourth quarter of 2014, and now saw a 548 percent increase, to 28,537,985 shares of Common Stock, worth almost $2 billion – 11.5 percent of the portfolio.

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New Positions

Amongst the 29 newcomers in Jana’s equity portfolio, one of the most valuable wages was put on United Rentals, Inc. URI. According to the 13F, the fund acquired 5,599,789 shares of the company’s Common Stock over the quarter. The stake is worth more than half a billion dollars, and accounts for almost 3 percent of its equity portfolio’s total value.

Another company that felt Mr. Rosenstein’s bullishness is Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. BKD, which saw the firm start a new stake with 8,735,006 shares of Common Stock, worth $329,834,000, over the quarter.

Also new to the fund’s portfolio are Starz STRZA and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc HOT. Between January 1 and March 31, inclusive, Jana bought 7,496,500 shares of Starz’s Series A Common Stock, valued at more than a quarter of a billion dollars, and 2,414,856 shares of Starwood’s Common Stock, worth about $200 million.

A smaller but still new wage was placed on Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM. Over the first quarter, Jana purchased 400,000 shares of Common Stock, worth about $31.5 million.  

Closed Out Stakes

By the end of the fourth quarter of last year, PetSmart, Inc. PETM accounted for more than 6.8 percent of Jana’s equity portfolio. However, a consortium led by BC Partners completed the acquisition of the company on March 11, giving the shareholders $83.00 per share in cash. By liquidating its 9,694,002 shares position, Jana got $804,602,166.