Ken Griffin Loves Options (Plus Dollar General, Devon, Amazon, Micron & Anadarko Petroleum)

Ken Griffin is the Founder and CEO of Citadel; famous for his options trading. The famed investor recently made the tabloids when his ex-wife said he makes roughly $68.5 million per month, or $2.2 million a day, after taxes!

This comes as no big surprise, as his hedge fund, Citadel Advisors, last disclosed (as of March 31) an equity portfolio worth almost $90 billion – up from $83 billion in the previous quarter.

This article will take a look at some of the most interesting moves this quarter, which include 761 new purchases and the closing of another 785 positions.

The Options Lover

As it can be expected, Citadel’s five largest bets are placed on either options or bonds.

• The fund owns $740 million in Apple Inc. AAPL put options, and another $600 million in call options.
• Related Link: The Latest Stock Picks From Cliff Asness, AQR Capital's 13F
• The largest wage of the quarter was put on Priceline Group Inc PCLN. Citadel declared holding $761 million in put options and another $711 million in call options.
• The third company that made it to the top five is Micron Technology, Inc. MU. The firm disclosed ownership of $637 million in the company’s bonds as of March 31.

On top of the options, Griffin has $406 million invested in 3,265,071 Apple shares, $75 million in 64,969 Priceline shares, almost $269 million in 9,912,096 Micron shares, and roughly $95 million in Micron options (calls and puts).

Completing The Top 10...

Three other companies that Griffin seems to like are Devon Energy Corp DVN, Dollar General Corp. DG and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN – all of them rank among the investor’s top 10 picks.

Citadel boosted his position in:

• Devon, by 11 percent, to 9,639,431 shares, worth about $581 million
• Dollar General, by 192 percent, to 7,205,172 shares, valued at $543 million
• Amazon, by 8 percent, to 1,249,435 shares, worth $464 million.

Completing the top 10 list is Anadarko Petroleum Corporation APC, which saw the fund boost its exposure by 6 percent, to 5,265,091 shares worth $436 million.