Pete Gallo
Steven Mandel of Lone Pine Capital may want to make a note to himself to send a "thank you" card to Bill Shatner, former captain of the starship USS Enterprise and current television spokesman for the online travel agency Priceline.com.
No, I'm not suggesting that Mandel is some kind of Trekkie, but his hedge fund shop is definitely seeing a big payoff from Priceline.com's around-the-clock, Shatner-led advertising blitz, which has helped the company's stock more than triple over the past 12 months.
The most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that as of the start of the second quarter, Lone Pine was sitting on 3.1 million shares. Priceline.com is among Lone Pine's largest equity holdings, and the hedge fund's 8.1% stake makes it the travel company's single largest...