Billionaire Bill Ackman Calls for Trump to Concede: ‘Think About Your Legacy and What’s Best for the Country’ (Business Insider)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is urging Trump to concede the election and unite the country. “There comes a time in the battle when one should fold the tent,” Ackman tweeted on Saturday. “Instead focus on your accomplishments over the last four years. Think about your legacy and what’s best for the country. Concede graciously and call for unity from all who have supported you.” Though Ackman spoke favorably of Trump following the 2016 election, he recently has been critical of the president’s handling of the coronavirus. In March, he urged Trump to shut down the country to contain the outbreak, though critics later said his comments were intended to tank the stock market so his firm would profit, which Ackman has denied.
Kern County Puts $80 million with Hedge Fund, Distressed Debt (Pensions & Investments)
Kern County Employees’ Retirement Association, Bakersfield, Calif., made a new commitment and new direct hedge fund investment totaling $80 million, said Daryn Miller, chief investment officer. The $4.6 billion pension fund’s board on Nov. 5 approved an investment of $50 million in Davidson Kempner Multi-Strategy Fund, a multistrategy hedge fund managed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management.
Why ESG Data Is Vital in the Alternatives Industry (Preqin.com)
Preqin ESG Solutions provides the necessary transparency to make strategic investments. The alternatives industry is in a constant state of flux. Every day, new activity, data, and trends influence the direction and growth of the sector. One area in particular is standing out, rapidly growing, and impacting the very fabric of the industry: ESG. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, while increasingly adopted across public markets, has largely been scarce in private markets. This is not to say private markets are avoiding ESG – in fact, many capital allocators and asset managers regularly use or seek out ESG data across private market asset classes. However, these efforts tend to be idiosyncratic, through direct engagement, or inconsistent across various players and their use cases.
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Every Major Bank Will Have Exposure to Bitcoin, Says Renowned Fund Manager Bill Miller (Bitcoin.com)
Veteran investor Bill Miller says that all major banks, investment banks, and high net worth firms will eventually have some exposure to bitcoin or something like it. He said that bitcoin’s staying power is getting better every day. Bill Miller’s Bullish Statements About Bitcoin: A growing number of major corporations have been gaining exposure to bitcoin, prompting speculation of when the rest of them will follow. Following Microstrategy’s $425 million investment, Square invested in bitcoin and Paypal launched a cryptocurrency service. Now, famous investor Bill Miller reportedly told CNBC on Friday:
Mind the Gap: From Exclusion to ESG to Sustainability (Hedge Nordic)
By Melanie Brooks of CARN Capital: Diverging strategies and confusing terminology regarding sustainable investment increase the risk for greenwashing and, in the worst case, misallocation of capital. For CARN, ethical exclusions and ESG tilts on their own are not enough to achieve sustainability. We have therefore chosen an alternative approach, investing actively for a sustainable future. After decades of occupying a niche corner in the world of finance, sustainable investment is going mainstream. 2019 appears to have been a pivotal year in this transition, with over $20 billion of new money flowing into strategies related to ESG and sustainability more broadly, according to data from Morningstar.
$58 Billion Two Sigma is Extending Internships for Undergrads Who Want to Keep Working Instead of Going Back to Virtual Class at Harvard and Other Top Schools. Here’s How It’s Doing It. (Business Insider)
Claire Zhou, 19, is taking the semester off from Harvard to intern in software engineering at Two Sigma, which manages $58 billion in assets with businesses that include a quantitative hedge fund, private equity, and market making. Zhou, who interned at Two Sigma this summer, asked the firm to let her extend her internship into the fall semester in lieu of taking virtual classes at Harvard this fall. Two Sigma gave Business Insider an exclusive look inside how it’s extending internships for Zhou and three other students as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. At Two Sigma, interns earn a pro-rated portion of a $135,000 annual salary.
Hedge Funds Fend Off Election Uncertainty and Coronavirus Spikes to Finish October in Positive Territory (Reuters)
Hedge funds have notched up positive returns in recent weeks, positioning around the investment uncertainty surrounding the US presidential election and fresh Covid-19 lockdowns with gains inversely correlated to the sharp stock market declines seen at the end of October. New data from Hedge Fund Research shows the industry as a whole was up 0.4 per cent last month, which took the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index’s year-to-date performance to 1.2 per cent.
Elliott Management Takes Stake in Software Company F5 Networks (The Wall Street Journal)
Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has taken a stake in F5 Networks Inc. and spoken to the software company’s management in recent weeks about ways to boost its lagging stock, according to people familiar with the matter. The exact size of Elliott’s stake couldn’t be learned, though it falls below the 5% threshold that would require regulatory disclosure, the people said. Elliott is one of the biggest investors in F5 Networks, a Seattle company with a market value of about $8.8 billion, they added.
Monday 11/9 Insider Buying Report: DNB, ANAT (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings’ Chief Executive Officer, Anthony M. Jabbour, made a $999,780 purchase of DNB, buying 38,000 shares at a cost of $26.31 each. Jabbour was up about 7.2% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with DNB trading as high as $28.21 at last check today. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings is trading up about 4% on the day Monday. Before this latest buy, Jabbour made one other buy in the past year, purchasing $4.4M shares for a cost of $22.00 a piece. And at American National Group, there was insider buying on Thursday, by Director E. Douglas McLeod who purchased 4,250 shares for a cost of $72.33 each, for a total investment of $307,385. Before this latest buy, McLeod made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $225,910 shares at a cost of $75.30 each. American National Group is trading up about 6.7% on the day Monday. McLeod was up about 7.8% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with ANAT trading as high as $78.00 in trading on Monday.
Zebra Technologies Corp (ZBRA) CEO Anders Gustafsson Sold $14.5 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Zebra Technologies Corp., Anders Gustafsson, sold 42,505 shares of ZBRA on 11/06/2020 at an average price of $342.02 a share. The total sale was $14.5 million. Zebra Technologies Corp develops products for the automatic identification and data capture market. Its products find use in mobiles, computers, barcode scanners, RFID readers, specialty printers.
What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Humana (NYSE: HUM)? (Analyst Ratings)
On November 6, the President & CEO of Humana (HUM), Bruce Broussard, sold shares of HUM for $29.15M. Following Bruce Broussard’s last HUM Sell transaction on February 26, 2019, the stock climbed by 134.1%. In addition to Bruce Broussard, 4 other HUM executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
Three Traders Settle Fraud Charges in Edgar Hacking Case (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced settlements with Sungjin Cho, Ivan Olefir, and Capyield Systems, Ltd., an entity controlled by Olefir, who were charged with trading on nonpublic corporate earnings information hacked from the SEC’s EDGAR system. According to the SEC’s complaint, Cho, Olefir, Capyield, and six other defendants participated in a scheme to hack into EDGAR and extract material nonpublic information to use for illegal trading. The complaint alleged that a Ukrainian hacker gained access in 2016 and extracted EDGAR files containing nonpublic earnings results.
Procter & Gamble Co (PG) Chairman, President & CEO David S Taylor Sold $5 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
Chairman, President & CEO of Procter & Gamble Co., David S Taylor, sold 35,000 shares of PG on 11/06/2020 at an average price of $143.31 a share. The total sale was $5 million. Procter & Gamble Co is a consumer goods company. The firm markets its products internationally through various channels which include mass merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, and department stores.
