What The Biggest Hedge Funds Did In Q1: The Full 13-F Summary
By Tyler Durden
While far less attention is being paid to hedge fund 13F filings, which show a stale representation of equity long stakes among the hedge fund community as of 45 days prior, than in years gone by as a result of increasingly poor performance by the 2 and 20 crowd, they still remain closely watched source of investment ideas but mostly to find out what the new cluster ideas and hedge fund hotel stocks are at any given moment so they can be faded.
Courtesy of a Bloombert compilation, here are some highlights from the latest round of 13F filings.
Valeant.
What used to be one of the industry’s most popular holdings has fallen out of favor with just about every major hedge fund holder save Pershing Square Capital Management’s William Ackman. Brahman Capital, which had invested in Valeant for at least 2010, exited the 8.12 million shares it held at the end of 2015 during the first quarter. The New York firm was joined by a who’s who of hedge fund giants: Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management and Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners all sold off the former high-flier, which has plunged about 90 percent from its peak last August.
Allergan
The merger-arb blow up of the year has claimed its set of scalps, however the company’s failed acquisition by Pfizer took place after the end of Q1, which is why all those who loaded up in the first quarter are now nursing big losses on their failed M&A bets. Among them are Lone Pine and Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group who bought into Allergan Plc during the first quarter, establishing stakes shortly before Pfizer Inc. decided in April to terminate a $160 billion deal to combine with the Dublin-domiciled company as the U.S. cracks down on corporate inversions. Pentwater Capital Management, Arrowgrass Capital Partners and Eton Park Capital Management also took new stakes or increased their Allergan holdings. The stock has fallen 28 percent this year.
Cutting back equity exposure
As noted earlier, the value of Soros Fund Management’s publicly disclosed holdings dropped by 25% to $4.5 billion as of the end of the first quarter. He was not alone in rapidly derisking his portfolio. At Glenview Capital Management, the hedge fund run by Larry Robbins, investments in U.S.-listed stocks declined by 22 percent. At Louis Bacon’s Moore Capital Management, the value of the holdings fell by about 29 percent.
Gold
Gold is gaining popularity among prominent investors. Soros established a $264 million position in Barrick Gold Corp., acquiring a 1.7 percent stake in the world’s biggest bullion producer that was the fund’s biggest equity position. Soros also disclosed owning bullish options on 1.05 million shares in the SPDR Gold Trust, an exchange-traded fund tracking the price of bullion. Other major investors also sought safety in the yellow metal. Eton Park purchased 3.6 million shares in the same gold ETF, a $422 million position. Bessemer Group bought 546,000 shares valued at $64.3 million.
As has become the norm, John Paulson …read more
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