Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Alex Denner, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Point72 Asset Management, United Cannabis Corp (CNAB), Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY), and More

Ironwood Pharma May Satisfy Activist Denner with Split-up Plan, but He Still Seeks Board Seat (CNBC)
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’ stock rose Tuesday after the company said it plans to separate next year, immediately establishing profitability for its commercial entity and separating some of its pipeline assets into another unit. The moves come after activist investor Alex Denner of Sarissa Capital said he was seeking a board seat. Denner said in an interview Tuesday he supports the moves, but is still seeking the seat. Sarissa filed its proxy statement to that effect Tuesday afternoon.

Och-Ziff Has First Inflows in Two Years (Bloomberg)
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC is finally bringing investors back into the fold after suffering eight straight quarters of outflows. The hedge fund firm, founded by billionaire Dan Och, lured $381 million in client cash in the first three months of this year, marking the first quarter of net inflows since 2015, the company said in a statement Wednesday. While Och-Ziff’s flagship multistrategy fund continued to have withdrawals, losing about $552 million, they were offset by $1 billion of inflows to the firm’s Institutional Credit Strategies from newly-issued collateralized loan obligations.

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Point72’s Human Resources Chief Leaves Cohen’s Hedge Fund Firm (Bloomberg)
Point72 Asset Management’s head of human resources Mike Butler is leaving Steven Cohen’s hedge fund firm. Butler joined Point72 in 2014 from outside the finance industry. During his tenure at the firm, Butler was responsible for bringing on key senior executives, vetting new hires and leading the firm’s employee survey. In a statement provided to Bloomberg News on Wednesday, Point72 thanked Butler for his service. “Mike led the modernization of the human capital team at Point72,” the firm said. “He has been a person of high integrity who has been passionate about improving the firm.”

Why Hedge Funds Still Top Smart Beta Funds (Forbes)
It seems the annual rite of spring-the fresh launches of smart beta exchange-traded funds that seek to replicate the returns of equity hedge funds. Smart beta ETFs are indeed raking in assets in the U.S.-according to Bloomberg Intelligence, $319 billion 2013 through Q1 2018, versus $128 billion from 2006 to 2012. Unfortunately, many of these smart beta funds promise and only disappoint-for they lack the art of hedge fund investing by missing one essential truth-you don’t want just the “average” hedge fund returns provided by the smart beta approach.