A Look at Billionaire Paul Singer’s Long-Term Investments

Activist investor and billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer was awarded this year’s Manager Lifetime Achievement Award by the Institutional Investor magazine in New York in June. In his nearly four-decade-long career as a fund manager, Mr. Singer has seen various and ups-and-downs in the market, but has still managed to consistently generate superior returns for his investors by focusing heavily on risk management.

In this article, we will take a look at five stocks that have been a part of his hedge fund Elliott Management‘s equity portfolio for a long time and will discuss how they have been performing of late.

We track prominent investors and hedge funds because our research has shown that historically their stock picks delivered superior risk-adjusted returns. This is especially true in the small-cap space. The 15 most popular small-cap stocks among a select group of investors delivered a monthly alpha of 80 basis points between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).

#5 Fortress Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:FBIO)

– Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of June 30): 1.07 million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $2.89 million

Let’s start with Fortress Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:FBIO), which has been a part of Elliott Management’s equity portfolio since the first quarter of 2012. After cutting its position in the stock by 25% during the March quarter, Elliott again cut the size of the position by 25% during the June quarter, to 1.07 million shares. Earlier this year, Fortress Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:FBIO) surprised a lot of analysts and investors by announcing that it will be acquiring National Holdings (NASDAQ:NHLD), an investment bank and asset management company, for $3.25 per share. Following that announcement, shares of Fortress Biotech tumbled heavily and have yet to make up much ground, though they are currently trading down by just 0.72% year-to-date. Fortress Biotech’s subsidiary FBIO Acquisitions Inc commenced a standard offer to purchase up to 100% of National Holdings’ shares on August 12, which will expire on September 9. Dr. Behzad Aghazadeh‘s venBio Select Advisor owns 1.33 million Fortress Biotech shares as of June 30.

#4 CorMedix Inc. (NYSEMKT:CRMD)

– Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of June 30): 1.50 million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $2.99 million

Elliott Management has not made any changes to its stake in CorMedix Inc. (NYSEMKT:CRMD) during the first half of 2016, a stake which it initiated during the first quarter of 2011. Shares of CorMedix Inc. (NYSEMKT:CRMD) shot through the roof in early 2015 after the FDA approved a phase 3 study of its catheter lock solution product, Neutrolin. However, after the initial rise, the stock started declining rapidly and gave up all of the gains by the end of the year. This year CorMedix’s stock has so far followed the same trajectory, making big gains in March and April before giving them all back in the months that followed. CorMedix recently announced that two of its executives have been invited to speak at two separate conferences to be held in September, the 2016 World Anti-Microbial Resistance Congress on September 9, and the Anti-Infectives Rx Conference on September 21. The company is planning a second phase 3 study of Neutrolin for later this year. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners opened a new position in CorMedix during the second quarter consisting of 45,320 shares.

Three more long-term holdings of the activist fund are revealed on the next page.