Paul J. Isaac’s Arbiter Partners Capital Management has recently filed its 13F filing for the first quarter of 2015. In the first decade since its foundation in 2001, Paul J. Isaac achieved average yearly returns of 21%. Arbiter’s latest 13F revealed an equity portfolio valued at $1.16 billion, with a total of 122 positions, mostly in consumer discretionary and financial sectors. The largest positions in terms of value from Arbiter’s latest 13F are represented by ‘Put’ options underlying shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). Among the top holdings are also ‘Put’ options underlying shares of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM).
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On the first spot is Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), in which Arbiter disclosed ‘Put’ options equal to 725,600 shares with a value of $270.00 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015. The fund first disclosed a ‘Put’ position as of the end of the third quarter of 2014, equal to 75,500 shares, and it was raised in the following quarters. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock has lost 3.56% in the last quarter of 2014 then has advanced by 37.54% since the beginning of 2015. By increasing his position significantly in the last two quarters, Isaac has shown his consistency on betting against Amazon. Isaac also shorted Amazon several times in the past. At the end of 2013 when the stock was trading at $402.20, Isaac commented on CNBC:
“We’ve shorted it off and on for some time. The short position we have on now has gotten large because the stock has run up,” Isaac stated. “I think that Amazon probably has some pretty good businesses in it. But given its valuation, I think it’s very expensive.”
Unlike Arbiter Partners, some investors are bullish on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), including Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Lansdowne Partners, which disclosed holding 2.47 million shares and 1.70 million shares respectively as of the end of March.
In Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Arbiter holds ‘Put’ options underlying 758,500 shares valued at $143.18 million. For the first quarter of 2015, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported a delivery of more than 10,030 vehicles, which exceeded its initial forecast and showed an increase of more than 50% on the year. Tesla also reported revenue of $939.88 million, up by 51.46% from a year ago; and a gross margin of 27.7% on a GAAP basis. The company is on track to exceed its target of 55,000 cars delivered in 2015 and it plans to start deliveries of Model X in the third quarter of the year. David E. Shaw’s D. E. Shaw, along with Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management and John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management are among the shareholders of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), while Eric W. Mandelblatt’s Soroban Capital Partners and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group hold ‘Put’ options underlying shares of the company.
With ‘Put’ options equal to 98,800 shares valued at $41.17 million, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) also made the list. The Internet television network reported revenue of $1.57 billion for the first quarter of 2015, up by 23.62% from the same quarter of the previous year. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)’s stock gained almost 70% since the beginning of the year and currently trades at more than 150 times earnings. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital, D. E. Shaw and Stephen Madel’s Lone Pine Capital are just a few of the hedge funds which own large long positions in Netflix, Inc. (NFLX).
The last spot on the list is taken by salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), whose stock gained 21.04% year-to-date. Isaac reduced this position by 55% during the first quarter of 2015 to 80,000 shares represented by ‘Put’ options, the value of the stake amounting to $5.35 million. According to some recent reports, Salesforce might be acquired in the near future and among the companies which have the potential to buy it are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), although none of them has disclosed any offers yet and salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) did not comment on the M&A rumors. Billionaires Israel Englander and Ken Griffin are among the investors of salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), according to their last 13F filings.
Disclosure: None
