Maplelane Raises Bearish Option Bets on GameStop, American Airlines (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Hedge fund Maplelane Capital has raised its bearish options bets on GameStop and American Airlines, companies that were at the heart of a retail-investor-led rally in heavily shorted stocks, a regulatory filing showed on Tuesday. Maplelane also disclosed that it had put options on 800,000 shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc as of Dec. 31, 2020, according to the filing.
Fund Boss Odey’s Assault Trial Starts After Humbling Year (Bloomberg)
For Crispin Odey, a personal and professional crisis is coming to a head. The hedge fund manager will fight a sex assault charge this week knowing that a verdict against him could end an investing career that’s spanned nearly three decades. On Wednesday, Odey will face a two-day trial where he’s accused of groping a young bank employee after inviting her back to his home in 1998.
Steven Cohen’s Point72 Ventures Invests Nearly $19M in UK-Based Fintech Firm (Stamford Advocate)
STAMFORD — Point72 Ventures, the venture capital business founded by billionaire hedge fund investor Steven Cohen, has announced it is leading an eight-figure investment in a financial-technology startup. The £13.5 million investment — which equates to nearly $19 million, based on the British pound-U.S. dollar exchange rate as of Monday — completed the “Series A” fundraising for London-headquartered Trade Ledger.
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Micro-Satellite Specialist Umbra Raise USD32m in Venture Funding (PrivateEquityWire.co.uk)
Umbra, a Santa Barbara-based intelligence and technology company, has raised USD32 million in an equity financing led by the family office venture fund of John Burbank, founder of hedge fund Passport Capital. The company’s existing investors – CrossCut Ventures, Starbridge Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, PonValley, and others – also participated. Umbra is the inventor of a micro-satellite that can see through clouds, at night, in high resolution (<25 cm GSD). The company has agreements to deliver data to the United States government and commercial geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) firms.
Baupost Group Takes a Large Stake in Intel (Institutional Investor)
The computer-chip giant has also been targeted by activist hedge fund Third Point. Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group initiated a huge new stake in Intel Corp. in the fourth quarter.The hedge fund firm bought more than 18 million shares valued at over $900 million, immediately making the computer-chip maker the firm’s third-largest long position in U.S. listed common stock, according to Baupost’s fourth quarter…
D.E. Shaw Seeks $71 Million in China School Operator Dispute (Bloomberg)
Hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw & Co. is demanding more than $71 million from a Chinese school operator it invested in that failed to sell shares to the public as promised, according to a recent lawsuit. New York-based D.E. Shaw, which manages more than $55 billion, said it spent $20 million in 2013 to acquire preferred shares in Ledudu Education, a private company that operates schools and kindergartens in China. The shares could be redeemed with an 18% annualized return if Ledudu didn’t complete an initial public offering by Sept. 1, 2015, D.E. Shaw said in the lawsuit filed Jan. 12 in the Cayman Islands.
Michael Burry, The Hedge Fund Genius Who Started GameStop’s 4,000% Rise, Sold Before Its Reddit Surge (Forbes)
Michael Burry, the hedge fund investor who built a massive position in GameStop before it became a meme stock on Reddit and skyrocketed, sold his entire stake in late 2020. The stock sales mean Burry missed out on a Reddit-fueled 2,000% surge in the video game retailer at one point in 2021, which would have made him over $1 billion. Filings disclosed by Burry’s hedge fund Scion Asset Management on Tuesday reveal the hedge funder, who made millions shorting subprime mortgages during the 2008 crisis and was dramatized in “The Big Short,” sold 1.7 million GameStop shares in the fourth quarter, exiting a position in the company that once stood at 5.3% of the company. At GameStop’s Reddit-fueled high of $483, Burry’s maximum holding could have been worth over $1.5 billion.
Tuesday 2/16 Insider Buying Report: PFIS, TAP (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Peoples Financial Services’ Director, William E. Aubrey II, made a $76,958 purchase of PFIS, buying 2,000 shares at a cost of $38.48 each. Peoples Financial Services Corp is trading up about 0.5% on the day Tuesday. Before this latest buy, Aubrey II purchased PFIS on 7 other occasions during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $436,429 at an average of $42.60 per share. And also on Friday, James A. Winnefeld Jr. purchased $44,490 worth of Molson Coors Beverage, purchasing 1,000 shares at a cost of $44.49 each. Before this latest buy, Winnefeld Jr. made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $36,900 shares at a cost of $36.90 a piece. Molson Coors Beverage is trading up about 2.1% on the day Tuesday.
Littelfuse Inc (LFUS) EVP, CLO, CHRO & Corp Secy Ryan K Stafford Sold $2 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
EVP, CLO, CHRO & Corp Secy of Littelfuse Inc, Ryan K Stafford, sold 7,184 shares of LFUS on 02/12/2021 at an average price of $275 a share. The total sale was $2 million. Littelfuse Inc is engaged in designing, manufacturing and selling of circuit protection product for the electronics, automotive and industrial markets. It offers electromechanical and electronic switch and control devices for commercial vehicles.
The Shareholder of EMX Royalty (NYSE MKT: EMX) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Shareholder of EMX Royalty (EMX), Paul H Stephens, sold shares of EMX for $138.5K. Following Paul H Stephens’ last EMX Sell transaction on December 09, 2019, the stock climbed by 2.1%. Currently, EMX Royalty has an average volume of 180.94K. The company has a one-year high of $3.81 and a one-year low of $1.18.
Ex-Goldman Sachs Analyst and Brother Charged In U.K. Insider Trading Case (The Wall Street Journal)
A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst and his lawyer brother were criminally charged by the U.K. financial regulator Tuesday with fraud and insider trading after allegedly profiting from information about deals Goldman worked on. Mohammed Zina, 32 years old, was an analyst in the conflicts resolution group at Goldman Sachs when he allegedly used confidential information at the bank to make the equivalent of almost $200,000, or £142,000, with his brother on stock trades. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the charges brought by the Financial Conduct Authority.
