Bill Ackman’s Comeback is on Fire with the Hedge Fund Manager Up Nearly 40% this Year (CNBC)
Things are looking pretty good for activist investor Bill Ackman. The net asset value of Pershing Square Holdings, Ackman’s publicly traded vehicle, rose 36.9% in the first quarter of 2019 and remains up more than 38% so far this year, according to a shareholder letter released Friday. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up 14.7% and has returned 15.6% this year.
Big US Hedge Funds Regain Ardor for FAANGs in First Quarter: Filings (The Epoch Times)
Some of the biggest, highest-profile U.S. hedge fund investors and money managers fell back in love with FAANGs in the first quarter, according to regulatory filings released this week. After dumping shares of Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc., and Alphabet Inc. -the FAANG components -prominent hedge fund managers including Tiger Global Management LLC. have moved back into the popular group. Tiger, managed by Chase Coleman, boosted its Facebook stake by 64.5% to 8.8 million class A shares during the first quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It increased its stake in streaming company Netflix by 42.8% to 2.1 million shares. Soros Fund Management LLC opened a new stake in Netflix, holding 50,000 shares, at the end of March.
Ismagilov/shutterstock.com
These 9 Hedge Fund Managers Made An Enormous Amount Of Money Last Year (CelebrityNetWorth.com)
The difficult year was capped off with insane volatility in the fourth quarter. Despite this, the following nine hedge fund managers brought home crazy salaries. There are some familiar names who make the list perennially, like David Shaw, Ray Dalio and Ken Griffin. Other famous hedge fund managers that failed to make the list this year are Third Point‘s Daniel Loeb and Appaloosa Management‘s David Tepper. In fact, 12 of 25 hedge fund managers that made last year’s list of the highest paid failed to make this list.
‘Godfather of the Hedge Fund’, Lord Fink, Becomes Chair of Offsite Home Builder (GlobalConstructionReview.com)
Panelised house builder Project Etopia’s main investor, Lord Stanley Fink, has joined the firm’s board as its chairman. Described as the “godfather of the hedge fund industry”, Fink has been a treasurer of the UK’s ruling Conservative Party, and was chief executive of Man Group, a hedge fund, until 2008. He has invested £7m in Project Etopia, which was founded in 2015, and which opened a factory in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, with a capacity to produce 2,000 panelised homes a year.
Hedge Fund Billionaires Were Democrats’ Main Bankrollers in 2018 (TruthOut.org)
In the 2018 midterms, Democrats benefited more than Republicans from election spending by outside groups for the first time in recent history. Now, thanks to a new report from Public Citizen, we have a better understanding of where much of that money backing Democrats came from: wealthy individuals who earn their livings as hedge fund founders, bank executives, and other key positions in the financial industry.
Learning Robots are Hottest Weapon in Investing Arms Race (Pensions&Investments)
Maybe machines can figure out this crazy stock market. At least that’s what quantitative traders who have struggled to beat the market for years will be hoping as a band of their peers roll out computer-driven strategies that learn from their own mistakes. Lynx Asset Management, for one, is planning a new fund in October that executes strategies thought up by a machine – an approach that helped the $5 billion Swedish hedge fund beat most of its trend-following rivals in 2018.
Platinum Affiliates Say ‘Wagoner’ Kills Liquidators’ Claims (Law360.com)
Law360 (April 23, 2019, 7:47 PM EDT) — More than a dozen sets of defendants in a suit over the collapse of Platinum Partners say a Second Circuit rule prevents the hedge fund’s liquidators from suing them for Platinum’s…
Pathfinder Bancorp Inc (PBHC) President and CEO Thomas W Schneider Bought $150,200 of Shares (Guru Focus)
President and CEO of Pathfinder Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:PBHC) Thomas W Schneider bought 10,000 shares of PBHC on 05/16/2019 at an average price of $15.02 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $150,200. Pathfinder Bancorp Inc is a stock holding company. It is engaged in the attracting deposits and investing deposits in loans secured by one-to-four family residential real estate, commercial real estate, business assets and investment securities. Pathfinder Bancorp Inc has a market cap of $67.700 million; its shares were traded at around $15.30 with a P/E ratio of 18.43 and P/S ratio of 2.20. The dividend yield of Pathfinder Bancorp Inc stocks is 1.57%.
Ishak Ismail Forks Out RM20m in Settlement with SC (The Edge Markets)
KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Earlier this month, the High Court recorded a consent judgment between the Securities Commission Malaysia and businessman Datuk Ishak Ismail, requiring him to pay a fine just shy of RM20 million to the market regulator. The settlement, on charges of insider trading and making false or misleading statements concerning the affairs of publicly-traded Kenmark Industrial Company (M) Bhd in June 2010, has been a long drawn out affair.
Friday 5/17 Insider Buying Report: SYMC, PETQ (Nasdaq.com)
On Thursday, Symantec Corp (SYMC)’s Director, Peter A. Feld, made a $12.83M buy of SYMC, purchasing 650,000 shares at a cost of $19.73 each. Symantec Corp is trading up about 0.2% on the day Friday. This buy marks the first one filed by Feld in the past year. And at PetIQ (PETQ), there was insider buying on Wednesday, by James Nathan Clarke who purchased 31,031 shares for a cost of $28.12 each, for a trade totaling $872,585. This buy marks the first one filed by Clarke in the past year. PetIQ is trading up about 0.5% on the day Friday. Clarke was up about 2.0% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with PETQ trading as high as $28.69 at last check today.
The Pres Malls of Simon Property (NYSE: SPG) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Pres Malls of Simon Property (SPG), John Rulli, sold shares of SPG for $1.61M. Following John Rulli’s last SPG Sell transaction on August 08, 2018, the stock climbed by 6.8%. SPG’s market cap is $54.17B and the company has a P/E ratio of 24.52. Currently, Simon Property has an average volume of 199.8K. The Company has a Price to Book ratio of 17.0866.
Two Internal Auditors Thought They Could Get Away with Insider Trading, LOL (GoingConcern.com)
Two internal auditor buddies got a starring role in an SEC litigation release after they were charged with insider trading for monkeying around with secret information about their respective employers. Lloyd Schuman, a former senior internal auditor at Verso Corp., and Dane Janes, an internal auditor with Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., agreed to pay a total of nearly $285,000 in penalties for their involvement in what the SEC said was “multiple instances” of insider trading and tipping by Schuman and tipping by Janes, in which Schuman made several thousands of dollars in illegal profits.
Hong Kong’s SFC Fines, Bans Ex-CGIS Director For Insider Trading (Finance Magnates)
Hong Kong’s financial watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), has banned a former licensed representative of China Galaxy International Securities (CGIS) from re-entering the industry for 30 months after he was convicted of conducting insider trading. The disciplinary action follows the completion of criminal proceedings against Wang Can for insider dealing in the shares of Linmark Group Limited. In November 2014, Wang was a part of a team of CGIS preparing a pre-engagement documentation for a potential client on acquiring Linmark.
Concrete Pumping Holdings Inc (BBCP) CEO Bruce F. Young Bought $900,000 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Concrete Pumping Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BBCP) Bruce F. Young bought 200,000 shares of BBCP on 05/14/2019 at an average price of $4.5 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $900,000. Concrete Pumping Holdings Inc has a market cap of $213.537 million; its shares were traded at around $5.31 . CEO Recent Trades: CEO Bruce F. Young bought 200,000 shares of BBCP stock on 05/14/2019 at the average price of $4.5. The price of the stock has increased by 18% since.
