Cathie Wood Sells 99% of Silvergate Stake as Customers Flee (Bloomberg)
One of Cathie Wood’s funds sold virtually all of its shares in Silvergate Capital Corp. after the cryptocurrency-focused bank announced that it was forced to sell assets at a steep loss as customers pulled out most of their deposits during the fourth quarter. Her ARK Fintech Innovation exchange-traded fund unloaded roughly 404,000 shares of Silvergate on Thursday, cutting the ETF’s holdings by more than 99%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund’s remaining holdings, which amount to less than 4,000 shares, are worth about $43,000 — only about 0.01% of the fund’s total portfolio.
Steve Cohen Made More Than $1.7 Billion in 2022 (Institutional Investor)
Steve Cohen knows as well as anyone that if you’re going to shell out close to $1 billion in MLB free agent contracts, it helps to have almost twice that much money coming in. Institutional Investor estimates that the founder of Point72 Asset Management and the owner of the New York Mets last year made more than $1.7 billion in personal capital gains in his hedge fund, which posted a roughly 10 percent net gain in 2022, according to a knowledgeable source. That figure doesn’t include his share of the fees generated by the hedge fund, so he no doubt made even more than that.
Activist Hedge Fund Seeks 4 Seats on Envestnet’s Board (Barron’s)
Activist hedge fund Impactive Capital has nominated four candidates to serve on advisor-technology company Envestnet’s (ticker: ENV) board, including former UBS (UBS) wealth management executive Thomas Naratil. Impactive blasted Envestnet’s financial performance, saying the company has underperformed the S&P 500 by 61% over the past five years and delivered returns of 6% during that time, compared with returns of 113% among companies in its peer group.
Chris Rokos’s Hedge Fund Soars a Record 51% in Turn of Fortunes (Bloomberg)
Chris Rokos produced his best-ever gains last year in a dramatic change of fortunes for the hedge fund manager. The $15.5 billion Rokos Macro Fund he leads surged 51% in 2022, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The return was his best since 2015 when he began trading for his eponymous firm in London.
Alphabet And These 2 Healthcare Stocks Insiders Are Selling (Benzinga)
Alphabet: The Trade: Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan sold a total of 22,203 shares at an average price of $89.75. The insider received around $1.99 million from selling those shares. United Therapeutics: The Trade: United Therapeutics Corporation (UTHR) President and COO Michael Benkowitz sold a total of 10,000 shares at an average price of $219.65. The insider received around $2.2 million from selling those shares.
SEC Closes Insider Trading Probe into Former Republican Senator (CNN)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its insider trading investigation into stock trades made by then-Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law at the outset of the pandemic, the former senator announced Friday. “This week, the SEC informed me that they have concluded their investigation with no action. I am glad to have this matter in the rearview mirror as I begin my retirement from the Senate following nearly three decades of public service,” Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said in a statement.
Former BlackRock Portfolio Manager Charged with Undisclosed Conflict of Interest (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Randy Robertson, a former BlackRock Advisors, LLC portfolio manager, for failing to disclose a conflict of interest arising from his relationship with a film distribution company in which the fund he managed for BlackRock invested millions of dollars. To settle the charges, Robertson agreed to pay a $250,000 penalty. The SEC’s order finds that, from 2015 to 2019, BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT), a closed end publicly traded fund, invested in Aviron Group, LLC subsidiaries by loaning the subsidiaries, which were in the business of funding advertising budgets of motion pictures, as much as $75 million. Robertson, a co-portfolio manager of BIT, had a significant role recommending and overseeing BIT’s loans to the Aviron subsidiaries.
