Robinhood Crowd Helps Hedge Fund Manager Gain 30% This Year (Bloomberg)
One hedge fund manager is getting some inspiration from an unlikely source: the Robinhood crowd. Adam Sender’s volatility hedge fund has climbed 30% this year — in part by betting on and against stocks that have been popular on the retail trading app. He notched gains by wagering around stocks including carmakers Hertz Global Holdings Inc., NIO Inc. and Tesla Inc.
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings Surges in July (Institutional Investor)
The publicly traded fund continued its winning streak. Almost everything in Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings portfolio made money in July, boosting his monthly performance to 4.6 percent. Pershing Square Holdings is now up 34.8 percent for the year, according to a document released to investors in the UK and Amsterdam-listed publicly traded hedge fund.
Greenlight Capital Q2 2020 Letter (Seeking Alpha)
GreenLight Capital, Inc. is an employee owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm primarily provides its services to pooled investment vehicles. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets. The Greenlight Capital funds returned 1.0% in the second quarter compared to 20.5% for the S&P 500 index. At quarter-end, the largest disclosed long positions in the Partnerships were AerCap Holdings, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Brighthouse Financial, Green Brick Partners and VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF. The Partnerships had an average exposure of 123% long and 68% short.
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Capital Concentrates, but Private Real Estate GPs See Opportunity (Preqin.com)
Fundraising in H1 2020 saw heavy capital concentration, but new funds are coming to market as investors prepare fresh commitments. The private real estate fundraising environment in 2019 was challenging, but now it’s even tougher. Amid the economic uncertainty triggered by COVID-19, real estate transactions slowed and sector dynamics shifted, while lockdown restrictions introduced practical challenges for business activities such as conducting meetings and signing paperwork. The impact of the pandemic has also exacerbated the capital concentration that has characterized the private real estate fundraising market in recent years, with institutions narrowing their commitments to fewer and larger funds. For most managers, raising a fund is more difficult than ever.
Pictet Eyes Long-Term Growth Stocks with New Market Neutral Global Equities Hedge Fund Launch (Hedge Week)
Pictet Asset Management, the investment management arm of the Geneva-headquartered wealth management giant Pictet Group, has unveiled a new market neutral global equity hedge fund which trades liquid US and European stocks, with a low correlation to broader equity markets. Pictet TR-Aquila aims to generate long-term growth investing across healthcare, TMT and consumer names, and will avoid companies and sectors that are heavily influenced by macroeconomic trends.
Singapore Hedge Fund Boosts Cash on Growing Risk of US-China Armed Clash (The Business Times)
[SINGAPORE] As investors grapple with the relentless rise in global coronavirus cases, one Singaporean hedge fund is preparing for another dire event – the possibility of an armed clash between the US and China. In the lead-up to November’s US presidential election, APS Asset Management is increasing allocations to the relative safety of cash, along with stocks that would weather an outbreak of hostilities, said founder and chief investment officer Wong Kok Hoi.
Ocean Avenue Capital Partners Wraps Up the Fourth Fund at $350m (Opalesque.com)
California-based lower-middle market private equity firm Ocean Avenue Capital Partners (OACP) has closed its fourth fund at a hard cap of $350 million, beating its $300 million target. OACP, which manages approximately $1.3 billion of capital, expects that representative transactions in Fund IV will include change of control investments in founder-owned businesses in transition, investments in underperforming businesses/turnarounds, carve-outs of non-core divisions of companies, restructurings, and thematic platform builds, said a press release.
Salesforce.com Inc (CRM) Chair of the Board & CEO Marc Benioff Sold $5.9 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
Chair of the Board & CEO of Salesforce.com Inc., Marc Benioff, sold 30,000 shares of CRM on 08/03/2020 at an average price of $197.08 a share. The total sale was $5.9 million. Salesforce.com Inc is a software-as-a-service company that provides enterprise cloud computing solutions, offering social and mobile cloud apps and platform services, as well as professional services to facilitate the adoption of its solutions.
Hedge Fund Short Sellers “Battered” by USD6 Billion Loss in Tech Rally – But Bearish Bets May Yet Rebound (Hedge Week)
Hedge fund short sellers took a hefty beating in what proved to be a bruising July, losing some USD6 billion across a range of strong-performing technology stocks, including more than USD4 billion from Tesla shorts alone. New data from Ortex Analytics, a London-based equities research and analytics outfit, indicates hedge funds who went short on Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and AMD along with Tesla suffered large losses as their bearish bets turned sour amid the stock market’s impressive Q2 rally.
Pzena Investment Cuts Amgen, Halliburton (Guru Focus)
Richard Pzena is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Pzena Investment Management LLC. The hedge fund has an equity portfolio valued at $15.33 billion and composed of 169 stocks. It sold shares of the following stocks during the second quarter of 2020. The Interpublic Group of Companies: The fund trimmed its position in The Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. (IPG) by 57.25%. The trade had an impact of -1.06% on the portfolio.
The President of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the President of S&P Global (SPGI), John Berisford, sold shares of SPGI for $2.08M. Following John Berisford’s last SPGI Sell transaction on March 05, 2019, the stock climbed by 154.6%. In addition to John Berisford, 4 other SPGI executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
Kodak Loan Disclosure and Stock Surge Under SEC Investigation (The Wall Street Journal)
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the circumstances around Eastman Kodak Co.’s announcement of a $765 million government loan to make drugs at its U.S. factories, according to people familiar with the matter. News of the loan last week caused Kodak’s shares to rise as high as $60, before falling to about $15 on Monday due to a dilution in the shares. Amid the heightened volatility, trading volume has surged. The price spike briefly produced a potential windfall for company executives who owned stock-option…
Citrix Systems Inc (CTXS) CEO & PRESIDENT David J Henshall Sold $917,482 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO & PRESIDENT of Citrix Systems Inc., David J Henshall, sold 6,420 shares of CTXS on 08/03/2020 at an average price of $142.91 a share. The total sale was $917,482. Citrix Systems Inc provides virtualization, networking and cloud infrastructure solutions. It provides a complete and integrated portfolio of application delivery, virtualization, mobility, network delivery and file sharing solutions.
