Founded in 1982 by American mathematician and philanthropist Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies is a hedge fund management firm which currently holds a portfolio worth $36 billion in value as per its SEC 13F filing dated November 12, 2014. The firm uses mathematical and statistical modeling and operates the Medallion Fund for trading non-stock instruments, the Nova fund for electronic trading of NASDAQ stocks, and the Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund for traditional investments. The following are three of the fund’s top investments: Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO), Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL), McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD). (You can see complete list of Renaissance Technologies’ holdings here.)
The investment of Renaissance Technologies with Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) is valued at about $766 million, representing approximately 16 million shares. The pharmaceutical company has a second quarter net profit margin of 32.34% and reported a 44.20% return on average assets and a 79.87% return on average equity. It is estimated that Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) will make a sale of as much as $556 million in its weight loss drug alone by 2018, and the same drug will also make about $3.2 billion as a diabetes drug. Apart from Renaissance Technologies as its largest investor, other hedge funds having stakes at Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) include Fisher Asset Management and Arrowstreet Capital.
Another major investment of Renaissance Technologies is with Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) in the amount of about $718 million covering about 11 million shares. With an estimated market capitalization of about $59 billion as of May 2014, Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) is listed in Forbes’ “World’s Most Valuable Brands”, making it to number 64 out of 100 brands ranked on a global scale. Apart from Renaissance Technologies, other hedge fund management firms also have Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) among their top stock holdings.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is the third largest stock holding of Renaissance Technologies, with an investment valued at about $651.8 million covering approximately 6.8 million shares. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is the world’s largest publicly traded restaurant, with a market capitalization of about $93 billion. In its 2013 annual report, McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) indicates a global comparative sales growth of 0.2%, and an earnings per share growth of 4%.
This article has been written by Nonito Guntan and edited by Serkan Unal.
