Ira Sohn 2015: The hidden gems

By now, you’ve probably heard that David Einhorn trashed the frackers, Doubleline's Jeff Gundlach said "rates have bottomed" and Bill Ackman didn't talk about CSX at the Ira Sohn Conference in New York on Monday. The annual confab brings together some of Wall Street's best and brightest for a worthy cause -- the Sohn Conference Foundation has raised more than $50 million to fight pediatric cancer in its 20-year history. And while the "big names" (understandably) get all the press, I wanted to highlight some of the "hidden gems" of Ira Sohn...and by that I don't necessarily mean the picks below but the people behind them.

Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital may not be a household name but he's a big name on Wall Street; the self-desrcibed "suggestivist" investor pulled in $570 million in 2014, making him one of the 25 highest-paid hedge fund managers, The NYT reports.

Robbins' picks this year include:

• AbbVie (ABBV): The stock has been hit recently amid concerns it will lose the patent on its blockbuster drug Humira in 2017. But Robbins believes AbbVie may not lose its Humira patent until 2022 and, even then, says competitors will have a tough time launching “biosimilar” drugs, especially if AbbVie is able to launch a non-injectable version of the treatment for arthritis and Crohn's disease. Robbins further argues AbbVie has ample capital to buy back stock or make acquisitions, or possibly be acquired itself in the M&A craze currently sweeping the pharmaceutical industry. (Josh Brown notes the stock trades at a fairly cheap valuation of 12.5 times expected 2016 earnings.)

• Brookdale Senior Living (BKD): "Demographics are easier than macroeconomics [and] the easiest thing to bet on is an aging population,” Robbins said in making a bullish case for Brookdale. Furthermore, 65 million elderly Americans live within 10 miles of a Brookdale facility, he says. Robbins also seconded activist Sandell Asset Management, which is waging a proxy fight to get three seats on Brookdale's board and recommends the firm convert its real-estate properties into a REIT structure.

Mala Gaonkar of Lone Pine Capital gave a bullish presentation on "legacy tech" and focused specifically on Microsoft (MSFT) where she said "downside is possible but unlikely from here and there are lots of drivers for growth."

Chief among those growth drivers is Microsoft's enterprise software business, according to Gaonkar, who notes IBM still generates $5 billion a year from its mainframe business. "Changes are very expensive" and large institutions are wary about making changes to mission-critical technologies, she said, noting that "legacy tech" companies like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle "dominate the cloud" despite hype about startups like Box.    

Angelo Martell, a Wharton Student, won a contest to present at Sohn and gave a bullish (and hilarious) presentation about IAC/Interactive Corp. (IACI).

Martell's thesis is based primarily on IAC's dominance in online dating which he joked is "bringing liquidity to the market."

Martell was particularly enthusiastic about Tinder, the 'swiping' app that's wildly popular with young singles and is owned by IAC. Martell suggested Tinder would have a higher valuation than Snapchat if it were a standalone company.

"Not that I'm recommending it, but Tinder makes it really easy to have an affair," he said, stressing that he's currently in a committed relationship. "Travel will never be the same."

Aaron Task is Editor-at-Large of Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter at @aarontask or email him at atask@yahoo-inc.com.