Billionaire Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Grows More Bullish on Energy

#3 American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH)

 – Shares Owned by BlueCrest Capital Management (as of June 30): 679,310

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $13.91 Million

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) is the only stock among BlueCrest Capital Management’s top five stock picks that doesn’t belong to the energy sector. While BlueCrest increased its stake in the company by 7% during the April-June period, the funds covered by us collectively became less bullish on the REIT as its ownership among them declined by three to 14 during that time and the aggregate value of their holdings in it fell by $78.8 million to $447.79 million. American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH)’s stock has seen a stellar rally this year, appreciating by 26.8% year-to-date, and recently hit its lifetime high at $22.99. Earlier this month, the company announced a secondary offering of 43.5 million shares on behalf of Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. Although American Homes 4 Rent didn’t sell any stock itself and received no proceeds, its stock has been negatively impacted since the announcement of this offering. On September 8, analysts at Raymond James Financial Inc. reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock and also boosted their price target on it to $26 from $24, which represents a potential upside of around 23% from its current trading price.

#2 Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)

– Shares Owned by BlueCrest Capital Management (as of June 30): 379,640

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $17.19 Million

Amid a 26.8% rise in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)’s stock during the second quarter, BlueCrest Capital Management increased its stake in the company by 223%. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) is expected to report its third quarter numbers in the middle of the next month and the current consensus estimate among analysts is for a per share loss of $0.07 on revenue $3.89 billion. For the same quarter of the previous year, the company had reported EPS of $0.31 on revenue of $5.58 billion. On September 7, analysts at Credit Suisse released a note asking clients to not expect too much from the third quarter results of oil services company. They wrote, “While an impressive move off the bottom, the U.S. horizontal rig count is still only 31% of its 2014 average. Not going down anymore is fabulous. But it doesn’t translate into doing well very quickly.” The analysts also noted that technology and a more efficient client base makes Halliburton Company the top “demographic” play over Schlumberger Limited in the near term. At the end of June, there were 62 investors from our database by us that were long Halliburton Company and the aggregate value of their holdings in it amounted to $2.26 billion.

#1 CNOOC Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CEO)

– Shares Owned by BlueCrest Capital Management (as of June 30): 1.42 million

– Value of Holding (as of June 30): $177.88 Million

With BlueCrest Capital Management increasing its stake in the company by a whopping 5,189%  during the second quarter, CNOOC Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CEO) ended up becoming the top stock pick of the firm at the end of that period. Other billionaire investors that boosted their stake in CNOOC Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CEO) during that time included Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management and Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies. Shares of the China-based upstream oil holding company were on a downtrend in the period between 2013 and 2015. However, they have ended that downtrend this year and are currently trading up by 16% year-to-date. After the company announced last month that it has brought its cost to produce a barrel of oil by 15% to $34.86 in the first half of 2016, the Wall Street Journal carried an article highlighting that, by pushing down the exploration expenditure while maintaining its production target, CNOOC Ltd is fast depleting its oil reserve. On September 12, ExxonMobil and Oil Search announced that each of them has agreed to acquire 40% interests in two exploration licenses in Papua New Guinea from a company controlled by CNOOC Ltd for an undisclosed amount. The ownership of CNOOC Ltd among hedge funds covered by us remained unchanged at 12 during the second quarter, but the aggregate value of their holdings surged by 460% to $292.35 million.

Disclosure: None