Lansdowne Partners LP, a European hedge-fund firm that focuses on stock picking, added new positions in Verizon Communications Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. in the first quarter and boosted its stake in JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The London-based firm purchased 13.5 million shares of Verizon valued at $641 million as of March 31, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It also bought 1.2 million shares of Illumina Inc. and added 3.7 million shares of Walt Disney Co. and 351,888 shares of JPMorgan.

Lansdowne, founded in 1998 by Paul Ruddock and Steven Heinz, exited stakes in Colgate-Palmolive Co., Accenture Plc, Capital One Financial Corp. and American International Group Inc., according to the filing.