James Simons' Renaissance Tech Hedge Fund Discloses Latest Moves; Ups Stakes In MCD, GOOG, AAPL, GS, more...

James Simons Renaissance Technologies hedge funds, one of the most successful hedge funds for years, released its 13F for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

Simons' Renaissance is a black-box, meaning we don't know exactly how he picks his stocks but it is assumed that most are based on computer models.

Last year, James Simons was the top hedge fund earner, bringing in $2.5 billion. This year may be a little rougher for Mr. Simons. In fact, yesterday, in a rare move, Simons answered questions from investors about his RIEF hedge fund, which has fallen short of its S&P 500 benchmark. The fund's B shares are down about 17% through April, according to documents obtained by the New York Post. On the call, Simons defended the RIEF fund saying he was the fund's largest investor and that the RIEF fund isn't built the same as the firm's market-beating flagship Medallion fund, which is closed off to outside investors.
Some notable moves for Simons this quarter include:

• Raising stake in McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) by 4.13 million shares to 8,165,300 shares
  
• Raising stake in Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) by 769k shares to 1,029,000 shares
  
• Raising stake in Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE: LO) by 2 million shares to 4,403,000 shares
  
• Raising stake in Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 2.5 million shares to 2,526,919 shares
  
• New 1,870,700 shares stake in Goldman Sachs (NSYE: GS)
  
• Raising stake in Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) by 4.46 million shares to 5,324,700 shares
  
• Raising stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) 2.35 million shares to 5,117,113 shares
  
• Raising stake in Annaly Capital (NYSE: NLY) by 9.56 million shares to 15,258,600 shares
  
• Raising stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) by 2.91 million shares to 4,579,600 shares
  
• Raising stake in Philip Morris International, Inc. (NYSE: PM) by 1.38 million shares to 4,910,700 shares
  
• Raising stake in Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL) by 1.09 million shares to 3,003,025 shares
  
• New 4,030,000 shares stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR)
  
• Lowered stake in Research In Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq: RIMM) by 2.9 million shares to 1,405,706 shares

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