Top Funds' Activity in Q2 2015
Hedge funds had to publish their 13F filings on Friday, and that means we have insight into what the biggest names in finance were buying and selling in the second quarter.It's that time of the year again when financial journalists across the world get all giddy peeking into the portfolios of overpaid, over-glorified and in many cases, under-performing "hedge fund gurus" charging 2 & 20 for sub-beta returns.
There are a few standout investments: Tech-focused hedge fund Tiger Global took a big position in Netflix, while Jana Partners invested in Precision Castparts right before Warren Buffett announced a takeover of the company.
A number of funds also took positions in pharmaceuticals stock Perrigo, including Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital.
Alibaba was another stock to see hedge fund action in the second quarter. David Tepper's Appaloosa Management bought into the Chinese e-retailer, while Tudor Investment Corporation — led by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II — sold out.
Here is a breakdown of what the biggest names in finance were buying and selling in the second quarter, based on Bloomberg data on the top buys and sells by market value.
Leon Cooperman at Omega Advisors
The $9 billion hedge fund opened positions in Priceline, Google, Springleaf Holdings, Gulfport Energy, and MGM Resorts in the second quarter, according to his fund's 13F filing. The hedge fund sold out of Humana, Caesars Entertainment, IBM, SandRidge Energy, and Time Warner Cable.
Carl Icahn at Icahn Associates
Activist investor Icahn Associates opened positions in Gannett Co. and Cheniere Energy, and it sold its stake in Netflix, according to the fund's 13F.
Dan Loeb at Third Point
Third Point opened positions in Baxter International, T-Mobile US, Sealed Air, Devon Energy and Perrigo, according to the fund's 13F. It sold out of Dollar General, McKesson, Edgewell Personal Care, Maxim Integrated Products, and FleetCor Technologies.
Paul Singer at Elliot Management
Elliott Management took new positions in Comcast, Citrix, and Ryanair, and also put money into two exchange-traded funds: a Vanguard long-term corporate bond fund and an iShares iBoxx investment-grade bond fund. The hedge fund sold out of Airgas, Tenet, Melco Crown Entertainments, ONEOK, and an iPath S&P 500 Vix exchange-traded note.
Crispin Odey at Odey Asset Management
London-based hedge fund Odey Asset Management took new positions in Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, Yahoo, Nimble Storage, and JPMorgan, according to the fund's 13F. It sold out of IPG Photonics, Solaredge Technologies, Briggs & Stratton, Comcast, and JM Smucker.
David Tepper at Appaloosa Management
Distressed-debt specialist Appaloosa, which manages in the region of $20 billion, took three new positions in the second quarter: Apple, Alibaba, and Mylan. It sold out of Google and Micron Technology.
Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital
Texas-based hedge fund manager Bass took positions in Perrigo, Mylan, C&J Energy Services, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer in the second quarter, according to the fund's 13F.
Chase Coleman of Tiger Global
Tech-focused hedge fund Tiger Global took positions in JD.Com, Netflix, Priceline Group, Tableau Software, and Kate Spade in the second quarter. It sold positions in Alibaba, TransDigm Group, Charter Communications, Vipshop Holdings, and Liberty Ventures.
Barry Rosenstein at Jana Partners
Jana Partners took positions in Conagra Foods, Johnson Controls, Precision Castparts, Time Warner Cable, and Williams Companies in the second quarter, according to the fund's 13F. It sold out of Supervalu, Market Vectors Gold Miners, Yum! Brands, Applied Materials, and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund.
Erich Mindich at Eton Park Capital
Eton Park Capital, which is led by ex-Goldman Sachs partner Eric Mindich, took positions in Perrigo, Google, SBA Communications, Williams Companies, and Broadcom in the second quarter, according to the fund's 13F filing. The fund sold out of Thermo Fisher Scientific, CDK Global, Liberty Ventures, Spirit AeroSystems, and Polaris Industries.
Paul Tudor Jones II of Tudor Investment Corporation
Tudor Investment Corporation took stakes in Pall Corp, Broadcom, Omnicare, and Sigma-Aldrich, and it also invested in an iShares iBoxx high-yield exchange-traded fund. It told out of IBM, Alliance Data Systems, Alibaba, and disposed of its investments in the Energy Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund, and the iShares MSCI emerging-markets ETF.
John Paulson of Paulson & Co
Paulson & Co took positions in Starwood Hotels, Broadcom, Teva Pharmaceutical, Oi, and PharMerica Corp. The hedge fund sold out of Popular, Zillow Group, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Home Loan Servicing Solution, and Allied Nevada Gold.
George Soros of Soros Fund Management
Soros took positions in Time Warner, Schwab, Alcoa, NRG Energy, and Pacira Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter, according to the fund's 13F filing. It sold out of Cenovus Energy, Kite Pharma, Tempur Sealy International, CF Industries, and Suncor Energy.
Steven Cohen at Point72 Asset Management
Point72 took positions in Charter Communication, Avis Budget, Sclumberger, Coach, and Achillion Pharmaceuticals, according to the fund's 13F. It sold out of Gilead Sciences, Qualcomm, FMC Technologies, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and Radius Health.
Andrew Hall at Astenbeck Capital Management
Astenbeck Capital Management took a position in Exxon Mobil in the second quarter and sold out of Murphy Oil and Energen.
Andreas Halvorsen at Viking Global
Giant hedge fund Viking Global took positions in Amazon.com, Avago Technologies, Cigna, Aetna, and Anthem, according to the fund's 13F filing. The fund sold out of Mondelez, Micron Technology, Canadian National Railway, Starwood Hotels, and T-Mobile US.
Nelson Peltz at Trian Fund Management
Alternatives firm Trian Fund Management, which was cofounded by Nelson Peltz, took big positions in Pentair and Sysco and sold its position in Allegion.
The only thing more pathetic than this quarterly 'hedge fund love fest' is the superficial coverage of these 13F filings. Have no fear, I'll walk you through some filings below but first, a few more articles.
Sabrina Willmer and Dan Kopecki of Bloomberg report, Hedge Funds Boost Energy Holdings as Oil Rout Brings Opportunity:
Hedge fund managers are betting hundreds of millions of dollars that Cheniere Energy Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Williams Cos. will be among the energy companies that survive the worst oil rout in decades.
Seth Klarman of Baupost Group bought 898,063 shares in Texas shale explorer Pioneer during the second quarter while Richard Perry’s firm added 6.26 million shares of Williams, according to regulatory filings.
Energy investors have lost more than $1.3 trillion in shareholder value as the price of oil dropped about 60 percent from its peak last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And now hedge fund managers are on the hunt for bargains, said oil and gas restructuring specialist John Castellano at AlixPartners in Chicago. Many companies are struggling to survive as revenue falls and banks curtail their access to credit.
“Not every oil and gas company is distressed,” Castellano said. “There are good companies out there that have good assets, but because the entire market has come down everyone’s equity has been hit by a reduction in value.”
Eric Mindich’s hedge fund Eton Park Capital Management bought a stake worth about $118 million in Williams, the Tulsa, Oklahoma energy infrastructure company that rejected an unsolicited $48 billion takeover bid in June. Williams hired Barclays Plc and Lazard Ltd. to “explore a range of strategic alternatives” after saying the offer was insufficient. Investors are betting on a possible sale soon that may pay them a premium.
Perry’s Williams stake increased by $381.7 million during the quarter to $548.1 million, the biggest gain among its U.S. public equities. Perry also increased its stake in Cheniere, adding 666,568 shares.
Jana Partners, the $11 billion hedge-fund firm run by Barry Rosenstein, also took a stake in Williams, buying 4.21 million shares during the quarter.
Winners, Losers
“There hasn’t been a significant separation of the winners and the losers yet and I think we’re going to see the start of it this fall” among energy firms, said Omar Samji, a partner in the energy practice of law firm Jones Day in Houston. The winners “are going to be companies that can operate in this environment, that can make money.”
Boston-based Baupost increased its position in Cheniere by 1.56 million shares to a value of $1.06 billion as of June 30. Cheniere remains Baupost’s largest U.S. stock holding. Baupost, which has $28.5 billion in assets, also now holds a $563.8 million stake in Pioneer as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing.
Cheaper Stocks
Baupost lost about 1.4 percent last quarter as energy stocks fell. Pioneer, a fracking company that hedge fund manager David Einhorn in May called overvalued, dropped 15 percent in the quarter, while Cheniere declined 11 percent. Both stocks have extended their declines since then.
Baupost reduced its position in Antero Resources Corp., while buying a new stake in Sanchez Energy Corp.
Point72 Asset Management, the firm that manages billionaire Steve Cohen’s investments, also boosted its energy holdings in the second quarter. It EOG Resources Inc. stake increased by $242.9 million to $245.5 million, its largest U.S. equity-listed holding at mid-year. Point72 also bought more shares in Occidental Petroleum Corp., with the stake rising by $189.2 million to $212.6 million, according to securities filings.
Highfields Capital Management, the $12.5 billion management firm run by Jonathon Jacobson, took new positions in Sempra Energy and Cenovus Energy Inc., giving it respective stakes worth $137.4 million and $70 million. Highfields reduced its investment in Enbridge Inc. by 1.96 million shares, bringing the value of that investment to about $176 million.
Pickens’ HoldingsSimilarly, Sam Forgione of Reuters reports, Top U.S. hedge funds stayed bullish in second quarter on energy as slump began:
Billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens saw the value of his energy holdings more than double during the second quarter to $72.9 million as he added stakes in 14 new companies, including oil field contractors Pioneer Energy Services Corp. and C&J Energy Services Ltd. He sold off his interests in a dozen other companies, including Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest service provider.
Money managers who oversee more than $100 million in equities must file a Form 13F within 45 days of each quarter’s end to list their U.S.-traded stocks, options and convertible bonds. The filings don’t show non-U.S. traded securities or how much cash the firms hold.
Top U.S. hedge funds made bullish bets on the energy sector in the second quarter even as companies' shares began a slide toward multi-year lows on concerns about oversupply, regulatory filings showed on Friday.So basically a lot of well-known hedge fund managers jumped into energy shares trying to catch a falling knife and got their head handed to them. Go back to read my recent macro comments on the ominous sign from commodities, the Fed's deflation problem, China's big bang and the bond king's dire warning to get a better understanding of the macro environment and how it's impacting the performance of hedge funds taking big bets in energy and commodities.
Hedge funds such as Baupost Group, Magnetar Capital and Jana Partners increased or took new stakes in energy shares over the second quarter, a period when the S&P 500 energy index lost 2.6 percent.
That decline has since accelerated, with the S&P energy index now down about 13.7 percent for the year, largely reflecting renewed fears of crude oversupply and weak global demand. Two favorites among hedge funds were Cheniere Energy and Pioneer Natural Resources. However, both companies struggled in the second quarter, with Cheniere falling 10.5 percent and Pioneer dropping more than 15 percent.
Hedge fund managers had already been overweight the energy sector in the first quarter, expecting oil and gas shares to rebound as the year wore on, but the opposite has happened, even as some of these funds have added to their bets.
Seth Klarman's Baupost, which managed about $32 billion at the end of last year, increased its stake in Cheniere by 1.5 million shares, leaving it with a stake of 15.4 million shares that was worth about $1.1 billion at the end of the quarter.
The fund also raised its bet on Pioneer by about 900,000 shares to 4.1 million shares, bringing the stake's value to about $564 million at the end of the quarter.
The moves were revealed in quarterly disclosures of manager stock holdings, known as 13F filings, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They are of great interest to investors trying to divine a pattern in what savvy traders are selling and buying.
Relying on the filings to develop an investment strategy comes with some peril because the disclosures come out 45 days after the end of each quarter, and the investor in question could have already changed their position.
Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors made a smaller bet on Cheniere and bought 120,000 shares in the quarter. Filings from billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who reported an 8.2 percent stake in Cheniere earlier this month amounting to 19.4 million shares, showed that he began amassing the stake in the second quarter with ownership of 1.1 million shares.
The dip in energy stocks during the second quarter came even as crude oil prices recovered somewhat from a downdraft beginning in June 2014 in which oil fell more than 50 percent.
Since the end of the second quarter, both oil and energy stocks have been sinking on renewed concerns of oversupply. U.S. crude prices have plummeted about 29 percent so far this quarter, leaving prices down about 20 percent for the year. On Friday, prices hit a near 6-1/2-year intraday low of $41.35 a barrel.
In one recent bet against these names, Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn said he was shorting, or betting against, Pioneer on the view that it was burning through cash.
Kyle Bass's Hayman Capital, which in the first quarter took small positions in each of the five fracking companies that Einhorn would later criticize at an investment conference in early May, increased bets on those names.
Among those five, Hayman increased its stake in Whiting Petroleum the most, adding about 528,000 shares, bringing its stake in the company to 553,000 shares. Whiting shares rose 8.7 percent in the second quarter, but have since plummeted about 43 percent.
Omega opened a stake of 1.8 million shares in Oklahoma-based Gulfport Energy Corp.. Shares in Gulfport sank over 12 percent over the second quarter. Omega, however, exited its stake in SandRidge Energy after owning 24.3 million shares at the end of the first quarter.
Omega also cut its stake in WPX Energy Inc. in the second quarter by about 2.4 million shares, leaving it at 1.2 million shares.
Magnetar, which had over $12 billion in assets at the end of last year, increased its stake in Energy Transfer Partners by 3.2 million shares to 3.4 million shares. Energy Transfer's stock fell 6.4 percent in the second quarter and is down about 23 percent for the year.
Jana, an $11 billion hedge fund run by Barry Rosenstein, took a new stake of 725,000 shares in Tallgrass Energy. The limited partnership, formed by Tallgrass Development to own, operate, buy and develop midstream energy assets and which went public in early May, rose a modest 1.3 percent over the second quarter.
THIRD POINT, GREENLIGHT CHARGE INTO ENERGY
Daniel Loeb's Third Point took new stakes in Devon Energy Corp. and Williams Companies Inc in the second quarter of 3.8 million and 1.5 million shares, respectively. Devon Energy shares slipped just 1.4 percent in the second quarter, but have since plunged about 23 percent.
Einhorn's Greenlight increased its stake in Consol Energy Inc. by 2.3 million shares to 22.8 million shares. John Paulson's Paulson and Co., which reported a roughly 12 percent stake amounting to 10 million shares in Synthesis Energy Systems in April, trimmed its stake in Whiting Petroleum by just 30,100 shares, leaving it sizable at 12.4 million shares.
But not all gurus are jumping into energy and commodities. Katherine Burton of Bloomberg reports that the family office of the undisputed king of hedge fund managers, George Soros, sold most of Aliba and reduced its oil stocks:
Billionaire George Soros’s family office sold almost all of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the second quarter, as Asia’s largest Internet company saw its stock decline further because of a slowing Chinese economy.A lot of other hedge funds followed Soros on Time Warner (TWC) in Q2. Why is Soros the king of hedge funds? Because with exception of a few others (like Ray Dalio), he understands the macro environment better than anyone else and trades accordingly. It helps that he has people like Scott Bessent on his team who is now gearing up to launch his own fund but Soros is in a league of his own when it comes to generating scalable alpha.
Soros Fund Management owned about $370 million of Alibaba’s American depositary receipts at the end of the first quarter. As of June 30, it held a stake worth $4.9 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Alibaba has lost about $100 billion of its value since November’s record high.
Soros’s firm trimmed its energy holdings during the quarter. Crude oil reached highs for the year in June, peaking at about $60 a barrel, before plummeting to current levels of about $42. The family office sold off its stakes in Cenovus Energy Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. and reduced its holdings in EQT Corp. and Noble Energy Inc.
The family office, which overseas about $30 billion, bought a new stake in Time Warner Cable Inc., making the company it’s second-largest U.S. stock holding. The company is awaiting regulatory clearance to merge with Charter Communications Inc. The position was worth $259 million at the end of the quarter.
Of course, Soros also warned public pension funds to steer clear of hedge funds and took his own advice, firing his outside managers amid poor returns. In that regard, he echoes the same sentiments as another big billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, who warned pensions to stay away from high fee managers.
Just like Soros, the Oracle of Omaha was also busy shedding energy stakes from his massive public and private market portfolio. Maria Armental of the Wall Street Journal reports, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Sells Off Shares in Phillips 66, National Oilwell Varco:
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold off its shares in Phillips 66 and National Oilwell Varco Inc. in the second quarter, as it continued to cut its positions in energy companies amid a global supply glut that has sent crude prices into a tail spin.Alright, enough articles on what top funds are buying and selling. You can read many more articles on 13F filings on Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes and other sites like Insider Monkey, Holdings Channel, and whale wisdom. You can also track tweets from Hedgemind and subscribe to their services.
Berkshire had already sold most of its stake in National Oilwell Varco in the first quarter, when it slightly raised its Phillips 66 holdings.
Meanwhile, Berskhire kept unchanged its stakes in its “Big Four” holdings: American Express, Coca Cola Co., Wells Fargo and IBM as of June 30, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Buffett seemed to hint during a television interview this week that Berkshire may have built up its IBM stake, seizing on Big Blue’s recent dip.
“I love it when it goes down,” Mr. Buffett said when asked on CNBC whether he was concerned about the IBM stock’s performance.
Friday’s filing didn’t show a share change in the IBM position, which was valued at $12.94 billion at the end of the quarter, up $171.9 million from the previous quarter. Still, the Nebraska billionaire could have built it up after June 30.
Berkshire, which for years had avoided technology stocks, first bought IBM stock in 2011, spending more than $10 billion for 5.4% of the company. The 104-year-old tech company has been trying to reinvent itself under Chief Executive Virginia “Ginni” Rometty, as sales have declined, on a year-to-year basis, for 13 straight quarters.
The four companies made up $66.87 billion of its massive stock portfolio, which stood at $107.18 billion as of the quarter’s end.
Also unchanged was its share stake in Precision Castparts Corp. Berkshire reached an agreement this week to buy the Portland, Ore., manufacturer of parts used by the aerospace industry for about $32.4 billion, in what will be Berkshire’s biggest deal. Berkshire has owned Precision shares since 2012, building a 4.2-million-share stake valued at $839.6 million at the end of the quarter, or down $42.6 million from the previous quarter.
Berkshire’s only new stake in the quarter was a 20 million share investment in auto-paint maker Axalta Coating Systems Ltd, which Berkshire bought from Carlyle Group LP for $28 a share. The stake was valued at $661.6 million at the end of the quarter.
The positions were disclosed in a 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a quarterly requirement for investors managing more than $100 million. The report indicates the number of shares held and the value of each stake at the end of the quarter.
Berkshire said it had omitted some information on its holdings in the filing, an action some investment managers take when they are building a new position. Such “confidential treatment” prevents others from piggy-backing on their investment ideas.
Those of you who want to delve more deeply into these filings can subscribe to services offered by market folly and 13D monitor whose principals also offer the 13D Activist Fund incorporating the best ideas from top activist funds.
My favorite service for tracking top funds is Symmetric run by Sam Abbas and David Moon. In my opinion, Sam and David have created one of the best services to track hedge fund holdings and more importantly to dynamically rank hedge funds based on their holdings and their alpha generation. I plugged them and went over some of what they offer in my last comment on Q1 activity of top funds.
Sam just sent me Symmetric's top 20 stock pickers (click on image below):
One thing I want to stress is these Risk On/ Risk Off markets are brutal for everyone. They are brutal for small hedge funds and for large 'brand name" hedge funds. This is a little taste of deflation and what's to come in the future.
This is one reason why I keep warning my readers to take these 13F filings from gurus with a shaker of salt (the other reason is that these filings are delayed, we don't have their short positions) . When you drill into their top holdings, many gurus have been getting clobbered lately and many of them will experience their worst year ever in 2015.
Having said this, there are great insights from these 13F filings but you have to know how to go over them, what to look for and how to use this information to initiate a new position, add to an existing one or remove a company that is under-performing.
Here are a few things that I look for when looking at these quarterly filings:
- Keep an eye out for top funds that take concentrated bets and aren't benchmark huggers. There's a reason why everyone tracks Buffett's moves but he's not the only great value investor on the planet. Guys like Seth Klarman of Baupost Group and his protege, David Abrams, the one-man wealth machine, are also known for taking concentrated bets in a few positions. The same goes for Brett Barakett of Tremblant Capital Group and a few others who take more concentrated bets. While taking concentrated bets doesn't always pan out, it shows conviction and a deeper understanding of the companies they invest in.
- Keep an eye out for top funds that are all investing in the same companies. For example, when looking at the top holders of Hertz (HTZ) and top holders Avis Budget Group (CAR), I notice some great activist and L/S funds have been buying the dips on these car rental companies as they are both well off their 52-week highs. That is a very bullish sign and these are the type of trades I love tracking when looking at these filings.
- Similarly, in specialized sectors like biotech, I like it when I see the Baker Brothers, Broadfin, Fidelity and a few other smaller funds investing in the same companies. For example, both Broadfin and the Baker Brothers are long Progenics Pharmaceuticals (PGNX) along with other top funds (Disclosure: Progenics is my largest position and I have been long since $4.50 and have added on big dips).
- Sometimes people just need common sense. Dust off your old copy of Peter Lynch's One Up on Wall Street and use your own judgment to take a position. There is a reason why Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are both long shares of Wal-Mart (WMT). It's a great company and it will greatly benefit from rising inequality and China's big bang. You're picking shares up at a deep discount at these levels as the company was hurt for all sorts of asinine reasons. For me, investing in Wal-Mart now at these levels is a no-brainer for conservative investors. If shares go lower, just add to your position (you don't need to be a billionaire to figure that out).
- Be careful, however, to avoid reading too much in hedge funds adding on dips, especially in sectors that have been hurt like energy and commodities. Most of them are betting on global growth but oil and commodity prices could stay low for a lot longer than they think, which is why I keep warning people to steer clear of these sectors (read my weekend comment for more insights). But it's not just energy and commodities that are getting clobbered. Semiconductors (SMH) are also getting killed and when I see guys like Einhorn adding to shares of Micron (MU), I wonder if it's a red light for hedge funds. This might pan out but it might flop spectacularly if global growth falters as China's economy slows down considerably.
- Be careful with high-flyers like Steve Cohen. The perfect hedge fund predator is a shark who knows how to trade big but he churns his portfolio often and that's why I don't pay too much attention to his latest filings (or use them to find selective shorts).
- Stop reading the garbage on Zero (H)edge!! All of a sudden Stan Druckenmiller is long gold (GLD) and this blog is making a big stink of it. Druckenmiller's family office did take a sizable position in gold in Q2 (roughly a quarter of the entire portfolio) but it also invested in many other positions. Gold, commodity, energy, emerging market shares are fine for pro traders to trade but be nimble and TAKE profits quickly in these markets or risk getting slaughtered.
I'm a stock market junkie and track thousands of companies in over 100 sectors and industries. I've built that list over many years and keep adding to it every day. I regularly look at the YTD performance of stocks, the 12-month leaders, the 52-week highs and 52-week lows. I also like to track the most shorted stocks and highest yielding stocks in various exchanges.
But I always use macro to guide my trading and ignore the noise in the financial media or doom & gloom blogs. These are brutal markets but there are still plenty of opportunities to make great money if you know how to dissect information properly.
On that note, have fun reviewing the portfolios of top funds below (just click on the names of the funds). I cover a lot of funds, not just hedge funds. I also added quite a few funds to the list, including some SAC alums. I will continue adding to this list as I see fit but it's pretty exhaustive.
Top multi-strategy and event driven 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, merger arbitrage, distressed debt 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) Balyasny Asset 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) Highland Capital Management
11) Pentwater Capital Management
12) Och-Ziff Capital Management
13) Pine River Capital Capital Management
14) Carlson Capital Management
15) Magnetar Capital
16) Mount Kellett Capital Management
17) Whitebox Advisors
18) QVT Financial
19) Visium Asset Management
20) York Capital Management
Top Global Macro Hedge Funds and Family Offices
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.
George Soros, Stanley Druckenmiller, Julian Robertson and now Steve Cohen have converted their hedge funds into family offices to manage their own money and basically only answer to themselves (that is my definition of true investment success).
1) Soros Fund Management
2) Duquesne Family Office (Stanley Druckenmiller)
3) Bridgewater Associates
4) Caxton Associates (Bruce Covner)
5) Tudor Investment Corporation
6) Tiger Management (Julian Robertson)
7) Moore Capital Management
8) Point72 Asset Management (Steve Cohen)
9) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust (Michael Larson, the man behind Gates)
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
11) Oxford Asset Management
Top Deep Value, Activist and Distressed Debt Funds
These are among the top long-only funds that everyone tracks. They include funds run by legendary investors like Warren Buffet, Seth Klarman, Ron Baron 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 more concentrated portfolio. Distressed debt funds typically invest in debt of a company but sometimes take equity positions.
1) Abrams Capital Management
2) Berkshire Hathaway
3) Baron Partners Fund (click here to view other Baron funds)
4) BHR Capital
5) Fisher Asset Management
6) Baupost Group
7) Fairfax Financial Holdings
8) Fairholme Capital
9) Trian Fund Management
10) Gotham Asset Management
11) Fir Tree Partners
12) Elliott Associates
13) Jana Partners
14) Icahn Associates
15) Schneider Capital Management
16) Highfields Capital Management
17) Eminence Capital
18) Pershing Square Capital Management
19) New Mountain Vantage Advisers
20) Atlantic Investment Management
21) Scout Capital Management
22) Third Point
23) Marcato Capital Management
24) Glenview Capital Management
25) Perry Corp
26) Apollo Management
27) Avenue Capital
28) Armistice Capital Management
29) Blue Harbor Group
30) Brigade Capital Management
31) Caspian Capital
32) Kerrisdale Advisers
33) Knighthead Capital Management
34) Relational Investors
35) Roystone Capital Management
36) Scopia Capital Management
37) ValueAct Capital
38) Vulcan Value Partners
39) Okumus Fund Management
40) Eagle Capital Management
41) Sasco Capital
42) Lyrical Asset Management
43) Gabelli Funds
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) Adage Capital Management
1) Appaloosa Capital Management
3) Greenlight Capital
4) Maverick Capital
5) Pointstate Capital Partners
6) Marathon Asset Management
7) JAT Capital Management
8) Coatue Management
9) Omega Advisors (Leon Cooperman)
10) Artis Capital Management
11) Fox Point Capital Management
12) Jabre Capital Partners
13) Lone Pine Capital
14) Paulson & Co.
15) Bronson Point Management
16) Hoplite 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) New Mountain Vantage
28) Andor Capital Management
29) Silver Point Capital
30) Steadfast Capital Management
31) Brookside Capital 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) Bloom Tree Partners
50) Cadian Capital Management
51) Matrix Capital Management
52) Senvest Partners
53) Falcon Edge Capital Management
54) Melvin Capital Partners
55) Owl Creek Asset Management
56) Portolan Capital Management
57) Proxima Capital Management
58) Tiger Global Management
59) Tourbillon Capital Partners
60) Valinor Management
61) Viking Global Investors
62) York Capital Management
63) Zweig-Dimenna Associates
Top Sector and Specialized Funds
I like tracking activity funds that specialize in real estate, biotech, healthcare, retail and other sectors like mid, small and micro caps. Here are some funds worth tracking closely.
1) Baker Brothers Advisors
2) Palo Alto Investors
3) Broadfin Capital
4) Healthcor Management
5) Orbimed Advisors
6) Deerfield Management
7) BB Biotech AG
8) Ghost tree Capital
9) Sectoral Asset Management
10) Oracle Investment Management
11) Perceptive Advisors
12) Consonance Capital Management
13) Camber Capital Management
14) Redmile Group
15) RTW Investments
16) Bridger Capital Management
17) Southeastern Asset Management
18) Bridgeway Capital Management
19) Cohen & Steers
20) Cardinal Capital Management
21) Munder Capital Management
22) Diamondhill Capital Management
23) Cortina Asset Management
24) Geneva Capital Management
25) Criterion Capital Management
26) Daruma Capital Management
27) 12 West Capital Management
28) RA Capital Management
29) Sarissa Capital Management
30) SIO Capital Management
31) Senzar Asset Management
32) Sphera Funds
33) Tang Capital Management
34) Thomson Horstmann & Bryant
35) Venbio Select Advisors
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) Frontier Capital Management
36) Akre Capital Management
Canadian Asset Managers
Here are a few Canadian funds I track closely:
1) Letko, Brosseau and Associates
2) Fiera Capital Corporation
3) West Face Capital
4) Hexavest
5) 1832 Asset Management
6) Jarislowsky, Fraser
7) Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management
8) TD Asset Management
9) CIBC Asset Management
10) Beutel, Goodman & Co
11) Greystone Managed Investments
12) Mackenzie Financial Corporation
13) Great West Life Assurance Co
14) Guardian Capital
15) Scotia Capital
16) AGF Investments
17) Montrusco Bolton
18) Venator Capital Management
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
Below, CNBC's Kate Kelly reports on hedge fund power players announcing their latest investment moves. Again, take these reports with a grain of salt and if Kate Kelly wants to do a better job, she should also disclose top holdings of the Symmetric top 20 stock pickers and many others I cover here.
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