Vickers Stock Research, a subsidiary of Argus Research Group, tracks and analyzes insider trading and institutional stock ownership trends. Form 13-Fs, which institutions must file to report their holdings, are due 45 days after the end of calendar quarters, and have now come in from 1Q24. We like to review the 13Fs of the major activist investors, including Carl Icahn, Trian Fund Management, Jana Partners, and ValueAct Holdings, among others, to determine their core holdings and new purchases. Activist investing has evolved in recent years and is now less about generating a short-term return on an underpriced stock and more about achieving long-term returns through an active management/investor partnership. Activists have made progress in the past year with high-profile investments into blue-chip companies such as Fedex and Union Pacific. According to Vickers, here are recent new purchases and key holdings of activist investors and other high-profile money managers such as Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and Ken Griffin of Citadel Advisors LLC.

Corteva is an agricultural inputs pure play that was formed in 2019 when it was spun off from DowDuPont. The company is a leader in the development of new seed and crop protection products. Seeds generate the majority of profits with the remainder coming from crop protection products. Corteva operates globally, but around half of revenue comes from North America.

Corteva is an agriculture pure play that was formed in 2019 when it was spun off from DowDuPont. The company is a leader in the development of new seed and crop chemicals products. Seeds generate a little over half of profits with the remainder coming from crop protection chemicals. Although Corteva operates globally, around half of revenue comes from North America.

Management's ability to "raise guidance" can often be a catalyst for market-beating returns in the quarters ahead. The fourth-quarter earnings season has crossed the 95% mark and is wrapping up, with blended earnings (actual results and the consensus for those still to report) showing a year-over-year gain of almost 10%, according to Refinitiv. That is considerably better than the 4%-7% advance expected at the start of the earnings period. Leading the outperformance were strong gains in Communication Services earnings, up 53%. On the flipside, Energy (like last quarter) is performing the worst, down 22%. Our analysts are always on the lookout for companies that boost their outlooks during earnings season. Here is an initial list of BUY-rated companies in Argus' Fundamental Universe of Coverage at which management raised guidance or increased its outlook during the 4Q23 EPS reporting season.