10 Best New Stock Ideas by Steven Cohen

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Need new investment ideas? Steven Cohen's SAC Capital hedge fund initiated 461 equity bets in the fourth quarter, including recent hot IPO Michael Kors Holdings (KORS) and Reliance Steel (RS).

Cohen's Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund was founded in 1992 and has generated average annual returns of about 30% with a long-short equity strategy, according to The Wall Street Journal. As the largest investor in his own funds, Cohen usually earns more than $1 billion a year.

Steven A. Cohen (SAC Capital)

The hedge fund is known for its trading-oriented style in equities. For example, Cohen pared his position in Apple (AAPL) during the third quarter before buying up more than 807,000 shares of the iPad and iPhone maker in the fourth quarter. Apple is now Cohen's largest wager with the position carrying a market value of nearly $432.7 million as of Dec. 31, displacing Tyco International (TYC).

Cohen, who has been at the center of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission involving insider trading, pushed forward with a whopping 331 new positions during the fourth quarter.

Hedge fund and investment managers who oversee more than $100 million are required to disclose their equity holdings, options and convertible debt on a Form 13F filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission within 45 days of the end of a quarter. Funds aren't required to report short positions betting on declines. Cohen ended the third quarter with 1,874 reported holdings with a market value of $13.7 billion.

>>View SAC Capital's Portfolio

The firm increased its ownership in 692 securities, including Starbucks (SBUX) and Gilead Sciences (GILD), and decreased positions in 711, including Praxair (PX) and Netflix (NFLX). Cohen liquidated 323 positions in stocks like American Tower (AMT) and Finisar (FNSR).

Interestingly, Gilead isn't counted as a new buy for Cohen as he previously held a tiny stake in the company. However, in the fourth quarter Cohen picked up 3.9 million shares, making it the fund's third-largest position with a market value of nearly $176 million.

Cohen's newest holdings are the ones most interesting to individual investors who want to follow his trading strategy. The following pages detail SAC Capital's 10 largest new equity positions in the fourth quarter, ranked by market value as of Dec. 31.

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10. Wolverine World Wide (WWW)

Company Profile: Wolverine World Wide is a maker of footwear and apparel under brand names like Wolverine, Cat Footwear, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, and Patagonia.

SAC Capital's Investment: Cohen's fund bought 413,000 shares of Wolverine in the fourth quarter, which had a market value of $14.7 million as of Dec. 31.

Share Price Performance: Shares of Wolverine climbed 9% in 2011 and are up another 9.5% early into 2012, likely making this a small-but-winning position for Cohen's fund, depending on the purchase date.

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