Top Funds Activity During Q4 2013
Top U.S. hedge fund managers in the fourth quarter focused on the consumer sector, with investment plays ranging from high-end auction house Sotheby's to big retailers Target Corp and Walgreen Co
General Motors also became the flavor of the quarter with many hedge funds as the U.S. government exited its position. This year, however, the stock price has fallen nearly 14 percent, making for a rough start for new Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra.
But on Friday, the automaker's stock rose 75 cents, or 2.13 percent, to $35.95.
Soros Fund Management LLC, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, purchased new stakes in banking giants J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup in the fourth quarter. Soros also boosted holdings in GM.
The quarterly disclosures of manager stock holdings, in what are known as 13F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are always intriguing for investors trying to divine a pattern in what savvy traders are selling and buying.
But relying on the filings to develop an investment strategy comes with some peril because the disclosures are backward looking and come out 45 days after the end of each quarter.
Still, the filings offer a glimpse into what hedge fund managers saw as opportunities to make money on the long side. The filings don't disclose short positions, bets that a stock will fall in price. And there's also little disclosure on bonds and other securities that do not trade on exchanges.
Upon request, the SEC also permits managers to omit sensitive stock positions from 13F filings. As a result, the public filings don't always present a complete picture of a manager's stock holdings. Here are some of the hot stocks and sectors in which hedge fund managers either took new positions or exited from in the fourth quarter.
JP MORGAN CHASE, CITIGROUP
Soros's fund owned about 2.8 million shares of JP Morgan as of December 31, and 2.3 million shares of Citi. Soros held no shares in either bank at the end of the third quarter.
SOTHEBY'S
Activist investor Marcato Capital Management, run by Mick McGuire, boosted the firm's holdings of Sotheby's by 35 percent, having bought an additional 1,200,000 shares in the auction house to now own 4,562,991.
Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Management also is a huge fan of Sotheby's, buying an additional 265,000 shares, bringing the firm's stake to 2.2 million shares.
Tiger Consumer Management got back into Facebook after exiting it in the third quarter. The filing shows the fund owned 1,384,507 shares of the social media powerhouse at the end of the fourth quarter.
Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global Investors bought an additional 13.9 million class A shares, bringing its stake to 18.3 million class A shares.
Scout Capital Management closed out of its position, selling 3 million shares. Scout Capital may be going on a junk food diet, as it liquidated its entire position in Whole Foods and Starbucks but added 3.9 million shares in Yum! Brands Inc.
The fund's owners said last month that they are splitting up and shutting down the $6.7 billion fund after 13 years. Returns were strong at 21 percent last year.
GENERAL MOTORS
Kyle Bass's Hayman Capital announced in early December that he established a position and that the 4,606,005 million shares he owned made up nearly one quarter of his portfolio.
Bridger Capital trimmed its holdings in General Motors Co by selling 155,000 shares, but the fund still owns 1,695,000 shares, which ranks the stock as the fund's fourth largest position.
Bronson Point Management, founded by former managers at SAC and Pequot, added to its holding of GM by buying another 400,000 shares, increasing its stake by 34 percent. And Cooperman's Omega added a new position, buying 1.04 million shares of the automaker.
Leon Cooperman's Omega added a new position, buying 1.04 million shares, and Mindich's Eton Park Capital Management opened a new stake of 2.74 mln shares.
Soros Fund Management held more than 4.9 million shares of GM and more than 1.4 million call options, the filing showed, up from around 1.28 million shares and more than 350,000 call options on September 30.
NETFLIX INC
Blue Ridge sold all of its Netflix stake, liquidating 349,000 shares of the American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media, while billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn cut his stake by 2.9 million shares, bringing his exposure to 2.7 million shares.
Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan's Tiger Global Management bought an additional 223,000 shares, bringing their stake to 663,000 shares.
TARGET CORP
Carlson Capital took a new position in Target, buying 1.4 million shares only weeks before the retailer made headlines after becoming the victim of computer hackers who stole millions of credit card records.
WALGREEN CO
Viking Global Investors opened a new stake of 11.6 million shares. Jana Partners increased its stake in Walgreen to 7.3 million sole shares versus 1.3 million sole shares. For more on activist investors Jana Partners, please see.
AMERICAN AIRLINES
Fresh from bankruptcy and a merger with US Airways, the "new" American has become a new favorite with money managers and the stock has climbed 38.71 percent this year alone.
Hutchin Hill opened a new position in the airline with 875,000 shares.
TIME WARNER CABLE
Farallon Capital Management added to its holding of Time Warner Cable Inc in the fourth quarter by buying 1,905,500 shares. It owned 2,432,00 shares at the end of the quarter, making it the firm's biggest position.
On Thursday, a proposed all-stock deal in which Comcast Corp would take over Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion was announced.
SIRIUS XM HOLDINGS
Viking Global Investors opened a new stake of 15.1 million shares.
THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC
Aaron Cowen's Suvretta Capital opened a new position, buying 322,000 shares to make it his fund's third biggest positions, while Omega Advisors added 209,630 shares.
Adage sold 607,400 shares of the scientific instrument maker, cutting its stake by 43 percent to own 800,505 shares at the end of the quarter. And Loeb's Third Point also dissolved its share stake in Thermo Fisher.
BLACKBERRY LTD
Loeb's Third Point took a stake in BlackBerry, the Canadian telecommunication and wireless equipment company best known as the developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets, of 10 million shares.
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE INC
David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital took a sole share stake in Take-Two Interactive of 4.2 million shares in the fourth quarter, while Icahn dissolved his entire share stake of 12 million shares.
Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters also reports that Soros cuts J.C. Penney, trims Herbalife, others follow:
Soros Fund Management, one of the hedge fund industry's most closely watched investors, trimmed its stakes in J.C. Penney and Herbalife late last year, marking a notable shift in course only months after buying into the companies.Why did Soros, the undisputed king of hedge funds, cut his stake in J.C. Penney in Q4 2013? Maybe he read my November 15th comment on top funds activity during Q3 2013 where I stated the following:
The New York-based firm, which ranked as J.C. Penney's second biggest investor, sold 6.15 million shares during the last three months of 2013, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. At the end of the quarter, the firm owned 13.8 million shares, down 30 percent from what it held at the end of the third quarter. It also cut its stake in Herbalife, where it was the fifth biggest investor.
J.C. Penney and Herbalife spent most of last year in the spotlight, with the retailer's stock price losing half its value as an ambitious overhaul fizzled and the nutrition and weight loss company surging 139 percent in the wake of a dramatic faceoff between some of the world's biggest investors.
At both companies, Soros' involvement, fueled by the firm's history of making a lot of money on savvy bets, boosted the share price and raised their credibility quotients, possibly even drawing in other hedge fund investors.
In the 40 years since 83-year old George Soros founded the firm, it has earned its investors $40 billion, including $5.5 billion last year, according to industry data. Even though the firm now invests only Soros' personal fortune, its investment decisions are still followed closely.
So when Soros bought 17.4 million J.C. Penney shares in April, not long after Ron Johnson was ousted as chief executive officer, investors cheered and pushed the share price up.
But as the company's once-ambitious turnaround plans lost steam and a former CEO returned to the helm, its biggest investor, William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, abruptly exited in August. The share price kept tumbling and has lost 68 percent in the last 12 months.
While Soros was a steady J.C. Penney supporter through the end of the third quarter, the firm evidently changed its mind in the last months of 2013.
It had company in the form of other prominent managers who also made changes. Richard Perry, whose Perry Corp owned 10 million shares, sold out, and Kyle Bass's Hayman Capital liquidated its 5.6 million shares. David Tepper's Appaloosa Management also sold all of its 737,800 shares.
Fund managers who oversee more than $100 million are required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to report their U.S. stock holdings 45 days after the end of the quarter. And while the information is often backward looking, it can shed light on certain trends.
J.C. Penney still has prominent supporters, however, with filings showing that Larry Robbins' Glenview Capital kept its stake steady at 12.3 million shares and Highfields Capital still owned 3.2 million shares at the end of the fourth quarter.
Soros' involvement was similarly critical at Herbalife, where the media quickly identified Soros and Carl Icahn, Herbalife's biggest backer with $16.9 million shares, as the industry's elder statesmen facing off against a younger rival, Ackman. The 47-year-old's Pershing Square Capital Management has a $1.16 billion short bet against Herbalife and is accusing the company of running an illegal pyramid scheme. The company denies that accusation.
Icahn kept his Herbalife holding steady, but Soros has now trimmed its stake by 36 percent to 3.2 million shares from 5 million shares.
The family foundation of Soros' former lieutenant, Stanley Druckenmiller, no longer listed Herbalife on its filing, after having had held 79,032 shares at the end of the third quarter.
Hayman's Bass, another closely followed manager, liquidated his firm's stake by selling 436,371 shares.
Other firms have take some money off the table. Tiger Consumer Management cut its position by 48 percent to 400,000 shares, while Adage Capital Partners cut its stake by 40 percent to 441,276 shares.
Since January, a U.S. lawmaker's calls for regulators to probe Herbalife's business practices has helped push its share price down 15 percent.
"... I love talking to people who put their own money at work. This is why I track the quarterly filings of top hedge funds but take this information with a grain of salt. As Fred (Lecoq) often reminds me, these "gurus" aren't always right and they are just as prone to making spectacular mistakes in the stock market (J.C. Penney is a perfect example, what a BEAUTIFUL short that was when all the gurus piled in. I have no opinion on it now but tracking it closely)."It's that time of year again when all the Soros wannabes get all wet peering into the stock portfolios of well known gurus. The poor turds, most of them don't have a clue of what they're doing, which is why most hedge funds stink!
But don't fret my little Soros wannabes, if you wanna start a hedge fund, there are plenty of dumb and horny public pension fund managers out there who fly first class to attend silly hedge fund conferences in London, New York and Geneva. Once there, they schmooze with the likes of Tatiana at MCM Capital Management where they get suckered into paying alpha fees for sub-beta performance.
In fact, Tatiana tells me business is booming, she can hardly keep up and had to hire some more eye candy to "entertain" all these lonely and horny institutional clients. In fact, she's having such a hard time keeping up with demand, she's resorted to finding beautiful single Russian ladies on Anastasiadate.com. Indeed, love knows no boundaries, especially when big pension checks are at stake. Tatiana sent me a pic of her latest hire, a 22 year old babe called Svetlana:
Ouff!!! Hoyt me!!! How do you say "hawt" in Russian?? I don't know what "niche strategy" she's peddling, but I'm sure there are plenty of pension suckers lapping her, umm it, up!
No wonder business is booming at MCM Capital Management. With eye candy like that, those hopelessly horny pension fund managers are like silly putty in the hands of a shark like Tatiana (oh she's good, she can work the toughest clients over and if things get tricky, she just flat out bribes them with offers they can't refuse).
But Igor and Yuri, Tatiana's cousins, are bored. They are trained Russian physicists and they need a new project to work on. They've filled out all those silly due diligence questionnaires, wooed clients with a bunch of useless risk-adjusted metrics and they need something new to sink their teeth into, so let's put our penises back in our pants and get on with it and get more insights into what the coveted "investment gurus" bought and sold during Q4 2013.
Sam Forgione of Reuters reports, Top U.S. hedge funds cling to eBay, Apple in fourth quarter:
E-commerce auction house eBay Inc became a darling among top U.S. hedge funds in the fourth quarter just before billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn urged the company to spin off its PayPal payments business, regulatory filings showed on Friday.I'm glad Icahn took my advice and stopped appearing on CNBC lambasting Bill Ackman. What a pathetic display of hedge fund cannibilism that was. Icahn has been making excellent stock picks and made another killing today when Activis bought Forest Labs for $25 billion, creating a windfall gain for him:
Farallon Capital Management took a new stake of 3,295,000 shares in the online auction house and Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors also took a new stake of 854,800 shares ahead of Icahn's proposal, which the company rejected.
The enthusiasm for eBay further spotlights the company after it announced on January 22 that Icahn had taken a 0.82 percent stake earlier that month. Icahn, chairman of Icahn Enterprises L.P., is known for taking large stakes in companies and pushing for management change.
Icahn's latest quarterly disclosures appeared to confirm eBay's timeline, since they did not show a stake in the company as of December 31, 2013.
Reuters reported a day after eBay announced Icahn's stake that the activist investor had taken a larger stake of close to 2 percent, according to a source.
The confidence in eBay's shares suggests that key investors see further gains. The company's stock price rose 7.6 percent in 2013 and is up 7.4 percent so far this year. The stock price jumped as much as 12 percent after it reported better-than-expected earnings and Icahn's stake on January 22.
Not all hedge funds showed their love for eBay in the fourth quarter. Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Management cut its position in the company by more than 2 million shares in the fourth quarter, still leaving the stake at a sizeable 2.4 million shares, according to the regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, known as 13Fs.
Ebay was not the only stock that Icahn and others agreed on in the fourth quarter. Icahn, who announced a "large position" in Apple Inc via Twitter in mid-August, found kindred spirits in activist investor Daniel Loeb and Blue Ridge, both of whom opened new positions in the company.
Loeb's Third Point hedge fund took a stake of 100,000 shares in Apple, while Blue Ridge took a new position of 320,000 shares. David Tepper's Appaloosa Management was an exception, cutting its stake by 12 percent to 215,320 shares.
For his part, Icahn's stake of 4.7 million shares at the end of December showed that he did not buy any shares of the company between October 24 and the end of last year.
In a letter to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook made public on October 24, Icahn revealed that he owned 4,730,739 shares in the company as of that morning, the same amount disclosed in the regulatory filing for the period ended December 31.
In late January, however, Icahn tweeted that he had bought another half-billion dollars of Apple stock, boosting the value of his stake in the company to more than $4 billion.
Icahn waged a public campaign to get Apple to return more cash to shareholders but said earlier this week in a letter to shareholders that he was ditching his non-binding proposal to force Apple to add another $50 billion to its stock buyback plan.
He cited the company's recent repurchases as well as influential proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc's call against his proposal.
Icahn's latest regulatory filings also showed that he owned 60.8 million shares of Nuance Communications, marking a 15.9 percent increase from his stake in the third quarter. Nuance makes the software that runs the Siri feature on Apple's iPhones.
Icahn did not show a stake in car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc in his fourth-quarter regulatory filings. CNBC television reported on January 3 that the investor had acquired between 30 million and 40 million shares in the company, which sent its shares up about 1.7 percent.
Generic drugmaker Actavis Plc (ACT.N) said on Tuesday it would buy Forest Laboratories Inc (FRX.N) for about $25 billion in cash and stock, expanding its portfolio of specialty pharmaceuticals for neurological and other disorders.Now, does this mean you should indiscriminately buy whatever Carl Icahn is buying? Hell no! I think he's wasting his time with Apple (AAPL) and his stakes in Nuance (NUAN), TransOcean (RIG) and Talisman Energy (TLM) might eventually pay off big but there is no rush to buy these stocks as the charts are ugly (of the three, I prefer Nuance).
The deal delivers a major payday to activist investor Carl Icahn, the second-largest shareholder at Forest Labs, who waged two proxy battles and threatened a third to change its leadership and strategy.
Actavis said it would pay the equivalent of $89.48 per share, representing a premium of 25 percent to Forest's closing price on Friday. The offer comprises $26.04 in cash and 0.3306 Actavis share for every Forest share.
Actavis shares rose nearly 8 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday as investors backed the latest step in the company's strategy of acquiring specialty drugmakers to boost profit margins and sales. Shares of Forest jumped nearly 30 percent.
And speaking of Apple, I'm sick and tired of hearing about this company. Analysts are all touting it because they want their underwriting business but I just bought the new BlackBerry Q10 and love it. I think BlackBerry is going to make a major comeback this year and I'm not alone. Prem Watsa's Fairfax Financial is still the top holder of BlackBerry (BBRY) but Dan Loeb's Third Point initiated a sizable position during Q4 2013. Viking Global Investors and Coatue Management are also among the top holders of BlackBerry.
In other words, some of the best investors in the world are long BlackBerry and the stock is gaining significantly on the news and in my opinion, will rise significantly more over the next couple of years as companies realize nothing beats the security of a BlackBerry (never mind what iPhone geeks tell you, the corporate world doesn't care about apps!).
What are some of the other gurus buying and selling? Luciana Lopez and Steven C. Johnson of Reuters report Buffett's Berkshire dumps stake in Dish, Glaxo:
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc eliminated its stake in Dish Network Corp in the fourth quarter and added a stake in financial giant Goldman Sachs, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.You can peer into the Oracle of Omaha's portfolio below along with those of many other top funds I track every quarter. You can also read more Reuters articles on what hedge funds and top funds bought and sold during the third quarter here.
Berkshire had taken the Dish position in the second quarter. The regulatory filing does not disclose exactly when in the fourth quarter that Berkshire sold its 547,312 shares in the satellite TV company. The stock jumped about 36 percent from the end of the second quarter to the end of last year.
The changes were disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public on Friday, which detailed Berkshire equity investments as of December 31.
U.S. regulators require large investors to disclose their stock holdings every quarter, and the disclosures can offer a window into their strategies for buying and selling stocks.
The filing also showed a new addition of 12,631,531 shares in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in the previous quarter that it had exercised its warrant to buy shares of Goldman Sachs.
Berkshire converted warrants in Goldman Sachs acquired during the financial crisis.
Buffett received the warrants when his investment in Goldman was seen as a vote of confidence in the bank, which was reeling from turmoil in the credit market.
Calls and emails to Dish, Berkshire Hathaway and Goldman Sachs were not returned immediately.
Berkshire owns more than 80 businesses in such areas as insurance, railroads, utilities, chemicals and food.
For example, Paulson & Co maintained its stake in the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, in the fourth quarter, even as others exited when bullion prices posted their biggest annual loss in 32 years (read my Outlook 2014 for more insights on gold). And Jana Partners LLC built a major stake in Juniper Networks in the fourth quarter but exited Agrium (great move, I like networking stocks like Juniper, Ciena and a few others).
Now, if you're serious about trading stocks, you need to do what I do but it's extremely time consuming. I track over 1500 stocks in over 80 industries. At the end of each trading day, I look at the most active, top gainers and losers and add to my list of stocks to track. I also like to know which stocks are making new 52-week highs and lows, which stocks are being heavily shorted, and which ones offer the highest dividends.
I also read everything I can on the macroeconomic backdrop, trying to gain insights on the titanic battle over deflation. I still think the end game is deflation, not inflation and agree with Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt who wrote this in their latest quarterly comment:
The slow nominal growth rate anticipated for 2014 should continue to put downward pressure on the inflation rate as the insufficiency of demand continues to create highly competitive markets. With slower inflation, lower long-term interest rates are a probable outcome.My good friend Francois Trahan is always harping on why in a zero interest rate world inflation matters more than interest rates and he's right. But there is a tremendous amount of liquidity out there and Fed tapering won't change the path of risk assets in the short-run, they're still going higher.
Please take the time to read my Outlook 2014 and my hot stocks of 2013 and 2014 for more of my insights on these markets. Let me remind all of you reading, especially those cheapass pension plutocrats that have yet to show me the love and respect I fully deserve, to contribute to this blog.
Importantly, I put a hell of a lot of time and effort into reading, writing, and correcting typos on this blog. I present you all with investment insights that you will never read elsewhere. My timely piece on shorting Canada was a true masterpiece and people who made a lot of money on my call to short the loonie should give me a cut of their profits.
Derek "hardass" Murphy once told me: "you can be arrogant but you better be good." Oh Murph, for all your tough talk on the 'virtues of capitalism', how I'd love for you, Fyfe and Valentini to trade seats with me for a year and see how you would survive in my chair. It's a lot tougher when you don't have a mutli billion dollar balance sheet to trade (ask Christian Pestre) or to write big ass checks to your favorite private equity buddies like André Collin did, effectively buying his seat at Lone Star Funds (what a frigging joke!).
Folks, you might have noticed I've been a little irritated lately. Big Lloyd has been training me hard and I see the light. I've dealt with so much bullshit in my life from the likes of Mario Therrien, Gordon Fyfe, Henri-Paul Rousseau and far too many other egos who blew smoke up my ass while they enriched themselves and their buddies.
Let me be crystal clear on something. You can all discriminate against me because I have MS and I'm very opinionated. You can violate my rights as you consistently do with other minorities, foolishly disrespecting diversity in the workplace, but MS doesn't define me and I've got more balls and brains than all those brainless turds working at these large pension funds. The only difference is they have to put up with nonsense because they need the paycheck (most people privately tell me they can't stand working at these large pension funds but shut up in order to make the money. The culture at these places sucks!!!).
Now that I got that off my chest, let me end by asking George Soros, Julian Robertson and Stanley Druckenmiller to contact me (LKolivakis@gmail.com) so I can introduce you to an amazing activist hedge fund manager in Canada who is definitely worth seeding. I don't like wasting people's time or money so if I tell you he's worth meeting, trust me, he's worth it (seen my share of charlatans in the hedge fund biz). I would introduce him to Canadian pension funds but they're way too busy taking on too much illiquidity risk, investing in private equity, real estate and infrastructure.
Below, a list of top funds I track every quarter. Going over these filings is time consuming but you will learn a lot by focusing on where they added to existing holdings or initiated new positions. I added a couple of well known Canadian funds, Letko, Brosseau & Associates, Hexavest and West Face Capital. They are all excellent funds.
Those of you who like to invest rather than trade should focus on the deep value and activist funds. They don't churn their portfolios as often.
But I warn all of you, use this information wisely and remember, even the "gurus" get crushed. The stupidest thing you can do is blindly follow their portfolios thinking you are going to make money in the stock market.
Top multi-strategy hedge funds
As the name implies, these hedge funds invest across a wide variety of hedge fund strategies like L/S Equity, L/S credit, global macro, convertible arbitrage, risk arbitrage, volatility arbitrage and statistical pair trading.
Unlike fund of hedge funds, the fees are lower because there is a single manager managing the portfolio, allocating across various alpha strategies as opportunities arise. Below are links to the holdings of some top multi-strategy hedge funds I track closely:
1) Citadel Advisors
2) SAC Capital Management
3) Farallon Capital Management
4) Peak6 Investments
5) Kingdon Capital Management
6) Millennium Management
7) Eton Park Capital Management
8) HBK Investments
9) Highbridge Capital Management
10) Pentwater Capital Management
11) Och-Ziff Capital Management
12) Pine River Capital Capital Management
13) Carlson Capital Management
14) Mount Kellett Capital Management
15) Whitebox Advisors
16) QVT Financial
Top Global Macro Hedge Funds
These hedge funds gained notoriety because of George Soros, arguably the best and most famous hedge fund manager. Global macros typically invest in bond and currency markets but the top macro funds are able to invest across all asset classes, including equities.
Soros and Stanley Druckenmiller, another famous global macro fund manager with a long stellar track record, have converted their funds into family offices to manage their own money and basically only answer to themselves (that is the sign of true success!).
1) Soros Fund Management
2) Duquesne Family Office
3) Bridgewater Associates
4) Caxton Associates
5) Tudor Investment Corporation
6) Tiger Management (Julian Robertson)
7) Moore Capital Management
8) Balyasny Asset Management
Top Market Neutral, Quant and CTA Hedge Funds
These funds use sophisticated mathematical algorithms to initiate their positions. They typically only hire PhDs in mathematics, physics and computer science to develop their algorithms. Market neutral funds will engage in pair trading to remove market beta.
1) Alyeska Investment Group
2) Renaissance Technologies
3) DE Shaw & Co.
4) Two Sigma Investments
5) Numeric Investors
6) Analytic Investors
7) Winton Capital Management
8) Graham Capital Management
9) SABA Capital Management
10) Quantitative Investment Management
Top Deep Value Funds and Activist Funds
These are among the top long-only funds that everyone tracks. They include funds run by billionaires Warren Buffet, Seth Klarman, and Ken Fisher. Activist investors like to make investments in companies where management lacks the proper incentives to maximize shareholder value. They differ from traditional L/S hedge funds by having a less diversified (more concentrated) portfolio.
1) Berkshire Hathaway
2) Fisher Asset Management
3) Baupost Group
4) Fairfax Financial Holdings
5) Fairholme Capital
6) Trian Fund Management
7) Gotham Asset Management
8) Sasco Capital
9) Jana Partners
10) Icahn Associates
11) Schneider Capital Management
12) Highfields Capital Management
13) Eminence Capital
14) Pershing Square Capital Management
15) New Mountain Vantage Advisers
16) Scout Capital Management
17) Third Point
18) Marcato Capital Management
19) Glenview Capital Management
20) Perry Corp
21) ValueAct Capital
22) Vulcan Value Partners
23) Letko, Brosseau and Associates
24) West Face Capital
Top Long/Short Hedge Funds
These hedge funds go long shares they think will rise in value and short those they think will fall. Along with global macro funds, they command the bulk of hedge fund assets. There are many L/S funds but here is a small sample of some well known funds.
1) Appaloosa Capital Management
2) Tiger Global Management
3) Greenlight Capital
4) Maverick Capital
5) Pointstate Capital Partners
6) Marathon Asset Management
7) JAT Capital Management
8) Coatue Management
9) Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors
10) Artis Capital Management
11) Fox Point Capital Management
12) Jabre Capital Partners
13) Lone Pine Capital
14) Paulson & Co.
15) Brigade Capital Management
16) Discovery Capital Management
17) LSV Asset Management
18) Hussman Strategic Advisors
19) Cantillon Capital Management
20) Brookside Capital Management
21) Blue Ridge Capital
22) Iridian Asset Management
23) Clough Capital Partners
24) GLG Partners LP
25) Cadence Capital Management
26) Karsh Capital Management
27) Brahman Capital
28) Diamondback Capital Management
29) Silver Point Capital
30) Steadfast Capital Management
31) T2 Partners Management
32) PAR Capital Capital Management
33) Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co
34) Brahman Capital
35) Bridger Management
36) Kensico Capital Management
37) Kynikos Associates
38) Soroban Capital Partners
39) Passport Capital
40) Pennant Capital Management
41) Mason Capital Management
42) SAB Capital Management
43) Sirios Capital Management
44) Hayman Capital Management
45) Highside Capital Management
46) Tremblant Capital Group
47) Decade Capital Management
48) T. Boone Pickens BP Capital
49) Bronson Point Management
50) Viking Global Investors
51) Vinik Asset Management
52) Zweig-Dimenna Associates
Top Sector and Specialized Funds
I like tracking activity funds that specialize in real estate, biotech, retail and other sectors like mid, small and micro caps. Here are some funds worth tracking closely.
1) Baker Brothers Advisors
2) SIO Capital Management
3) Broadfin Capital
4) Healthcor Management
5) Orbimed Advisors
6) Deerfield Management
7) Sectoral Asset Management
8) Visium Asset Management
9) Bridger Capital Management
10) Southeastern Asset Management
11) Bridgeway Capital Management
12) Cohen & Steers
13) Cardinal Capital Management
14) Munder Capital Management
15) Diamondhill Capital Management
16) Tiger Consumer Management
17) Geneva Capital Management
18) Criterion Capital Management
Mutual Funds and Asset Managers
Mutual funds and large asset managers are not hedge funds but their sheer size makes them important players. Some asset managers have excellent track records. Below, are a few funds investors track closely.
1) Fidelity
2) Blackrock Fund Advisors
3) Wellington Management
4) AQR Capital Management
5) Sands Capital Management
6) Brookfield Asset Management
7) Dodge & Cox
8) Eaton Vance Management
9) Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co.
10) Geode Capital Management
11) Goldman Sachs Group
12) JP Morgan Chase & Co.
13) Morgan Stanley
14) Manulife Asset Management
15) RCM Capital Management
16) UBS Asset Management
17) Barclays Global Investor
18) Epoch Investment Partners
19) Thornburg Investment Management
20) Legg Mason Capital Management
21) Kornitzer Capital Management
22) Batterymarch Financial Management
23) Tocqueville Asset Management
24) Neuberger Berman
25) Winslow Capital Management
26) Herndon Capital Management
27) Artisan Partners
28) Great West Life Insurance Management
29) Lazard Asset Management
30) Janus Capital Management
31) Franklin Resources
32) Capital Research Global Investors
33) T. Rowe Price
34) First Eagle Investment Management
35) Hexavest
Pension Funds, Endowment Funds, and Sovereign Wealth Funds
Last but not least, I track activity of some pension funds, endowment funds and sovereign wealth funds. I like to focus on funds that invest in top hedge funds and have internal alpha managers. Below, a sample of pension and endowment funds I track closely:
1) Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMco)
2) Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
3) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
4) Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
5) OMERS Administration Corp.
6) British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC)
7) Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments)
8) PGGM Investments
9) APG All Pensions Group
10) California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS)
11) California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS)
12) New York State Common Fund
13) New York State Teachers Retirement System
14) State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System
15) State of Wisconsin Investment Board
16) State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund
17) Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio
18) STRS Ohio
19) Teacher Retirement System of Texas
20) Virginia Retirement Systems
21) TIAA CREF investment Management
22) Harvard Management Co.
23) Norges Bank
24) Nordea Investment Management
25) Korea Investment Corp.
26) Singapore Temasek Holdings
27) Yale Endowment Fund
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Below, Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine is out with its annual hedge fund report card. Michael Peltz, Institutional Investor executive editor, provides insight on CNBC. The top performers are always in the top five or ten and don't forget, the undisputed king of hedge funds remains George Soros, who now has fun managing his multi billions. That, Mr. Murphy, is the"best gig in the world!"