These are Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman’s 8 Keys to Being a Successful Investor. What can Regular Investors Learn from his Success? (MarketWatch)
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management recorded an 8.8% loss of its net asset value (NAV) last year, according to Morningstar data. Those numbers meant the fund company’s share price also slid some 14.6%, marking the billionaire investor’s worst performance since 2016. That said, so far in 2023, Pershing Square Capital PSH, -0.07% has reported a 9.48% share price gain and 10.77% total NAV return, according to Morningstar daily return figures through July 17. Although the fund has been outpaced by the 17.80% gain made so far this year by the S&P 500 SPX, 0.32%, PSH has had a five-year price return of 21.08%, far greater than the SPX’s 9.99% return over the period.
Chewy Held by Billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Hedge Fund (Seeking Alpha)
Billionaire Steven Cohen‘s hedge fund Point72 reported a 5.8% passive stake in Chewy (NYSE:CHWY), according to an SEC filing. Shares fell 0.4% on Friday morning. Earlier this year, Point72 was reported to hold a 1.7% stake in the pet products retailer. On Thursday, CHWY said Chief Financial Officer Mario Marte will retire effective July 28. Chief accounting officer Stacy Bowman will serve as interim CFO, while the online company searches for a permanent replacement.
Buffett’s Florida Bet Bodes Well for Troubled Insurance Market (Bloomberg)
Last December, Florida’s legislature passed a controversial but necessary set of reforms aimed at shoring up the state’s teetering property insurance market, where a string of insurers had canceled policies and even filed for bankruptcy, leaving homeowners with dwindling options. This month, Farmers and AAA announced that they, too, were reducing exposure to the state, prompting some Florida watchers to speculate that the reform had failed. In reality, it’s too early to conclude that, and Berkshire Hathaway’s big new bet on Florida reinsurance is a sign that the outlook may be improving modestly.
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Activist Hedge Fund Elliott Takes Stake in Outsourced Drugmaker Catalent (Hedge Week)
Activist hedge fund Elliott Investment has acquired a stake in US drug manufacturer Catalent, after the New Jersey-headquartered, NYSE-listed company saw revenues plunge in the first quarter. Elliott is pushing for changes on Catalent’s board after Catalent’s Q1 fell 19%, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Catalent – which conducts outsourcing work for large pharmaceutical companies – had earlier delayed its results announcements three times and slashed its annual revenue forecast for the second time.
Sydney’s Newest Celebrity Investor Arrived Fast (AFR.com)
As 2021 came to a close, Clayton Larcombe was in trouble. A computer-game fund that the former stockbroker had hoped would take Australia by storm was going sour. Short sellers were attacking his biggest investment, and an investor backlash had begun towards the high valuations that some of his stocks had built up during pandemic lockdowns. From the start of November to the end of January 2022, his PAC Global Esports hedge fund fell 53 per cent. It looked like the boutique funds management business he started four years earlier, PAC Capital, might live up to only one of the attributes it was named after: persistence, ambition and consistency.
San Diego Union-Tribune Sold to New York-Based Hedge Fund (SDNews.com)
After five years of ownership, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has sold the San Diego Union-Tribune to an affiliate of Denver-based newspaper publisher MediaNews Group for an undisclosed sum, according to company emails. Soon-Shiong and his family will maintain ownership of the Los Angeles Times, per media reports. MediaNews Group, formerly Digital First Media, is owned by Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund and the second-largest newspaper owner behind Gannett.
Prosecutors Accuse Sam Bankman-Fried of Leaking Ex-girlfriend’s Private Notes to the New York Times (CNN Business)
Federal prosecutors have accused former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of witness tampering after he allegedly leaked the personal writings of his former girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison, to the New York Times. In a letter Thursday to US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of giving the New York Times Ellison’s writings to “interfere with a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Friday 7/21 Insider Buying Report: SGMT, MLKN (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, Sagimet Biosciences’ Director, Beth C. Seidenberg, made a $750,000 purchase of SGMT, buying 46,875 shares at a cost of $16.00 a piece. Bargain hunters are able to bag SGMT at a price even lower than Seidenberg did, with the stock trading as low as $15.73 at last check today — that’s 1.7% under Seidenberg’s purchase price. Sagimet Biosciences is trading up about 0.6% on the day Friday. And at MillerKnoll, there was insider buying on Tuesday, by Director Michael A. Volkema who bought 13,584 shares for a cost of $16.95 each, for a trade totaling $230,246. MillerKnoll is trading up about 4.4% on the day Friday. Volkema was up about 9.4% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with MLKN trading as high as $18.55 in trading on Friday.
Over $27M Bet On This Consumer Cyclical Stock? Check Out These 3 Penny Stocks Insiders Are Aggressively Buying (Benzinga)
Muscle Maker: The Trade: Muscle Maker, Inc. (GRIL) 10% owner Aggia FZ LLC acquired a total of 8,855,452 shares an average price of $3.12. To acquire these shares, it cost around $27.63 million. VBI Vaccines: The Trade: VBI Vaccines Inc. (VBIV) Director Steven Gillis acquired a total of 609,090 shares at an average price of $1.65. To acquire these shares, it cost around $1 million.
Three Plead Not Guilty to Insider Trades Before Trump Media Deal (Reuters)
(Reuters) – A Florida venture capitalist, his brother and an employee accused of insider trading before a blank check company’s proposed merger with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media company pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Thursday. Michael and Gerald Shvartsman, and Bruce Garelick were charged last month with trading illegally in Digital World Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, before it announced its plan to combine with Trump Media & Technology Group in late 2021. The merger, which would take Trump Media public, has yet to occur.
