In 2022’s Rough Ride, Bill Ackman Ends on a Down Note (Institutional Investor)
Pershing Square Capital CEO Bill Ackman broke a three-year winning streak in 2022, posting his first down year since 2018. Pershing Square Holdings, his publicly traded hedge fund — and now the firm’s largest — fell 8.8 percent for the year, according to a notice to investors. The market’s plunge in December ended hopes that Ackman could finish the year in the black: He was down only 4.8 percent at the end of November but lost an additional 4.2 percent during last month’s market meltdown. Still, he managed to far outdo the broader markets’ near-20 percent dive in 2022, despite owning a heavily-concentrated portfolio of stocks that mostly sank in tandem with the market.
Crispin Odey Returns to Form with Record Year (The Times)
The hedge fund run by Crispin Odey has enjoyed its best year yet in an eye-catching return to form by the once beleaguered money manager. Odey’s main European fund was up 152 per cent last year, by far the biggest annual gain recorded by the Mayfair-based tycoon since he set up his investment firm in 1991. He was boosted by a bet against government debt that paid off when soaring inflation began to ravage the UK economy, as well as by the market turmoil wrought by the mini-budget in September.
Steven Cohen’s Point72 Discloses 5.3% Pulmonx Stake As BofA Downgrades The Stock (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday evening after the closure of US equity markets, a 13G filing with the SEC revealed Steven Cohen‘s hedge fund Point72 had disclosed a 5.3% stake in lunch disease focused biopharma company Plumonx (US:LUNG). The filing came only one day after BofA’s latest recommendation downgrade on Tuesday which pushed the stock down 11%. The trade comes after Pulmonx’s stock has shown solid recovery momentum with shares up more than 60% from all-time lows reached in early November following third quarter results. Even with the last two months of momentum, the stock continues to trade 75% below its share price from the start of 2022. Pulmonx, along with the rest of the small/mid-cap biotech sector has re-rated lower over 2022 as discount rates pushed down valuations for the sector.
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Why Citadel Was a Rare Hedge Fund Winner in 2022 (The Street)
Despite last year’s market turmoil, Citadel‘s funds managed to deliver jaw-dropping returns. Here’s why that news may be tough for some investors to swallow. 2022 will go down as the worst year for global hedge fund returns since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Citadel’s hedge funds managed to rack up 32% in gains through November 2022 thanks to its dynamic team. Many retail investors aren’t pleased with Citadel’s success because they have alleged Citadel Securities colluded with Robinhood to hamper trading during 2021’s GameStop short squeeze.
The Confidence of Hedge Fund Managers Drops Sharply (Opalesque.com)
After an optimistic quarter, the confidence of hedge fund managers has dropped sharply. North American managers had the lowest confidence score, said a report. According to AIMA’s fourth quarter hedge fund confidence index, the overall confidence score has fallen to 14.1, more than 10 points below the previous quarter and the lowest ever since the survey first launched in 2020. Based on a sample of 328 hedge funds (accounting for approx. US$2 trillion in assets) that participated in the index, the average measure of confidence (in the economic prospects of their business over the coming 12 months) is +14.1, representing a two-year low in confidence levels reported by hedge funds, and several points below the historic average, the report further explained.
Hedge Funds Gave Startups Billions. What Are They Worth? (Bloomberg)
The pain — and then the questions — kept coming last year as prominent hedge funds took turns marking down the value of their stakes in private companies. Every time they wrote down holdings by millions, or even billions, of dollars, investors questioned whether they had gone far enough. An exclusive Bloomberg News analysis offers a partial glimpse into one of the most opaque corners of the investing world, and the findings aren’t reassuring. In many cases, hedge funds and other money managers disagree over how to value private companies, including some of the hottest, such as ByteDance and Discord.
Biggest Hedge Funds will Keep Lion’s Share of Customers in 2023, Data Dhows (Reuters)
The top 5% of the world’s hedge fund managers are set to take 80-90% of investor inflows in 2023, according to new research from Agecroft Partners which raises money for hedge funds. The data highlights the dominance of a small group that has squeezed the total pool of hedge funds to its smallest since 2009.
Wednesday 1/4 Insider Buying Report: CULP, EYEN (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, Culp’s President, Culp Home Fashions, Thomas Bruno, made a $41,310 buy of CULP, purchasing 9,000 shares at a cost of $4.59 a piece. Bruno was up about 7.8% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with CULP trading as high as $4.95 at last check today. Culp is trading up about 5.1% on the day Wednesday. And at Eyenovia, there was insider buying on Friday, by Stuart M. Grant who bought 21,753 shares for a cost of $1.50 each, for a trade totaling $32,630. Before this latest buy, Grant purchased EYEN on 5 other occasions during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $715,251 at an average of $2.22 per share. Eyenovia is trading up about 2.9% on the day Wednesday. So far Grant is in the green, up about 17.7% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $1.77.
Insiders Selling Hyzon Motors, Canopy Growth And This Social Media Stock (Benzinga)
Hyzon Motors: The Trade: Hyzon Motors Inc. (HYZN) 10% owner Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies Pte Ltd sold a total of 3,769,592 shares at an average price of $1.71. The insider received around $6.45 million from selling those shares. Pinterest: The Trade: Pinterest, Inc. (PINS) SVP, Products Naveen Gavini sold a total of 14,295 shares at an average price of $23.51. The insider received around $336.06 thousand as a result of the transaction.
UK Equity Hedge Fund’s Time to Shine in a Falling Market (Opalesque)
Kernow, a UK equity long/short fund, returned 4.5% in December 2022 despite a fall in the UK equity market. Britain’s domestically oriented mid-cap index, the FTSE 250 Index (which includes the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange), slumped 19.7% in 2022, its worst performance since 2008. Last year the UK markets faced changes in the country’s political leadership, a cost-of-living crisis and a hawkish central bank, with traders now fearful of the economy tipping into a recession in 2023, said Reuters. The internationally focused FTSE 100 share index (the 100 companies listed on the LSE with the highest market capitalisation) ended the final trading day of 2022 almost 1% higher than it began the year, helped by a sharp rise in share prices of energy companies and miners, reported The Guardian.
