Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners Like Qualcomm & ConAgra, Dislikes eBay & Ashland

Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners recently disclosed its long equity positions as of the end of the second quarter of the year. According to the 13F filing, the fund’s equity portfolio is worth roughly $16.82 billion, down from $17.23 billion in the first quarter.

Between April and June, the firm acquired 17 new stocks, sold out of 25 positions, trimmed another 11 and increased its stakes in 12 companies. In terms of allocations, assets were quite diversified, although there was a slight focus on information technology and finance stocks, which accounted for 22 percent and 21 percent of the total value of the portfolio, respectively.

The top three stakes remained unchanged in rank in relation to the first quarter. The largest bet was placed on 14.1 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY put options, worth roughly $2.9 billion. Second in line was QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM.

After purchasing 281,669 shares over the quarter, Jana disclosed ownership of 28,819,654 Qualcomm shares, worth approximately $1.8 billion. This wage makes it one of the top 10 institutional investors in the tech company.

Among newcomers, ConAgra Foods Inc CAG was the leader. Over the quarter, Rosenstein started a new position comprising 11,537,414 shares, worth more than half a billion dollars, and 19,032,000 call options, worth about $832 million.

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Jana stands among the largest institutional investors in the company, only surpassed by the Vanguard Group, with 34,545,683 shares, representing more than 8 percent of the total outstanding stock.

On the other hand, Jana reduced its exposure to eBay Inc EBAY by 42 percent, taking its holdings to 27,323,999 shares, or almost 2.2 percent of the outstanding stock, and sold 96 percent of its stake in Ashland Inc ASH, only keeping 200,000 shares, worth less than $25 million.