Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Dan Loeb, Cheyne Capital, Highbridge Capital, Intrexon Corporation (XON), Hooker Furniture Corporation (HOFT), and More

Cheyne Capital closes Strategic Value Credit Fund at EUR1bn Hard Cap (Hedge Week)
Alternative asset manager Cheyne Capital Management (Cheyne Capital) has closed its inaugural European Strategic Value Credit Fund (SVC) having scaled back subscriptions to the Fund’s capacity limit of EUR1 billion. The Fund, launched one year ago and managed by veteran credit investor Anthony Robertson, employs a value-oriented, opportunistic credit strategy which seeks to capitalise on the accelerated sell-down of legacy mid-market corporate loans by European banks, and to take advantage of increased dislocation and heightened illiquidity in sub-investment grade credit markets as the current late-stage credit cycle advances.

JPMorgan to Convert Highbridge Multi-strategy Fund into Credit Fund (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to convert its $2 billion Highbridge multi-strategy fund into a credit-focused fund as the bull market shows signs of slowing and clients want to invest elsewhere, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. The Highbridge fund, which is available to institutional and wealthy private investors, is part of JP Morgan’s $150 billion global alternatives business, which offers real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure and hedge fund portfolios.

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Crypto Chiefs Novogratz, Allaire Say Facebook’s Coin Is a Bullish Sign (Bloomberg)
The digital coin introduced by Facebook Inc. is not competition for Bitcoin; it’s proof that cryptocurrencies will play a valid role in today’s economy. That’s the view of some of the biggest names in the crypto industry. The heads of investment firms, trading companies and technology outfits say Libra, the token Facebook is developing in partnership with the likes of Visa Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., is a boon for Bitcoin and the broader crypto sector, although some say they’re nervous about whether Facebook will have access to financial data and how that will be regulated.

Hedge Fund Buys Barnes & Noble. It Could Be Very Good News for Customers (Inc.com)
The hedge fund Elliott Advisors has bought Barnes & Noble for $638 million. Generally, when financial investors buy large retail chains, it usually means the end is near. Just ask Toys ‘R’ Us. But this time is different. In fact, the acquisition is actually the best thing that could possibly have happened for the chain’s millions of customers. If you’ve shopped at Barnes & Noble stores, you know they’re all pretty much the same, with similar selections, coffee shops, notebooks and incidentals. They are all about to become much more individual stores, and much, much nicer.

Sony Analysts Question Loeb’s Push After Strategy Flip Flop (Bloomberg)
Dan Loeb is back trying to whip Sony Corp. into shape, but he’s drawing fire this time around after reversing course from his prior thesis. Loeb’s Third Point last week revealed a $1.5 billion stake in the Tokyo-based company and advocated for a spin off of its chip business to finance deeper expansion in entertainment, including games and movies. That’s the opposite of what he championed in 2013, when he called on executives to sell a part of their film division.

Hedge Fund Performance Update: May 2019 (Preqin)
We look at hedge fund performance benchmarks for May 2019, comparing them to April and revealing the 2019 YTD and 12-month return figures across top-level strategies, structures, denominations and size classifications. Ending a four-month positive streak, the Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark generated its first negative monthly return for the year in May, posting a loss of 0.10%. Only two top-level strategies were able to make gains in the month. BRL-denominated and emerging hedge funds managed to avoid losses, though, upping their YTD returns.

Hedge Fund Chief Credits Colts Cornerback With Saving Son’s Life (Bloomberg)
“Good things happen to good people.” That’s how Drew Dickson, the founder of London-based hedge fund Albert Bridge Capital, described Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore at the end of a deeply personal essay that took off on Twitter after he posted it Monday.

Blue Sky Directors in ‘Shock’ at Receivership (AFR.com)
Directors of fallen fund manager Blue Sky have claimed they were blindsided when its big financier Oaktree Capital Management sent in receivers. “The directors have … advised us that in their opinion they were engaging in discussions with the secured creditor [Oaktree] following the company’s breach of its loan covenants,” a report to creditors of Brisbane-based Blue Sky Alternative Invest…

Insider Weekends: Randal Kirk Buys Intrexon At Much Higher Prices (Seeking Alpha)
Intrexon Corporation (NASDAQ:XON): $7.03: Chief Executive Officer Randal J. Kirk acquired 805,447 shares of this biotech company, paying $5.24 per share for a total amount of $4.22 million. These shares were purchased indirectly through various entities. We wrote the following about Mr. Kirk’s purchase of Intrexon at an average price of $4.67 last month. The stock is up nearly 50% since then.

Hooker Furniture Corp (HOFT) CEO Paul B Jr Toms Bought $100,150 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Hooker Furniture Corp (NASDAQ:HOFT) Paul B Jr Toms bought 5,000 shares of HOFT on 06/17/2019 at an average price of $20.03 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $100,150. Hooker Furniture Corp is a designer, marketer, importer of casegoods, leather and fabric-upholstered furniture for the residential, hospitality and contract markets. It also manufactures residential custom leather- and custom fabric-upholstered furniture. Hooker Furniture Corp has a market cap of $234.690 million; its shares were traded at around $19.86 with a P/E ratio of 6.77 and P/S ratio of 0.35. The dividend yield of Hooker Furniture Corp stocks is 2.98%. Hooker Furniture Corp had annual average EBITDA growth of 19.20% over the past ten years.

Tuesday 6/18 Insider Buying Report: GES, SGMS (Nasdaq.com)
At GUESS?, (GES), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, CEO and Director Carlos Alberini purchased 347,353 shares of GES, at a cost of $14.32 each, for a total investment of $4.97M. GUESS?, is trading up about 3.2% on the day Tuesday. And on Monday, Ronald O. Perelman bought $2.17M worth of Scientific Games Corp (SGMS), buying 110,000 shares at a cost of $19.73 each. Before this latest buy, Perelman purchased SGMS at 5 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $26.51M at an average of $17.97 per share. Scientific Games Corp is trading up about 8.2% on the day Tuesday. Perelman was up about 10.0% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with SGMS trading as high as $21.71 at last check today.

The CMO of CorVel Corporation (NASDAQ: CRVL) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the CMO of CorVel Corporation (CRVL), Diane Blaha, sold shares of CRVL for $1.3M. Following Diane Blaha’s last CRVL Sell transaction on August 06, 2018, the stock climbed by 25.5%. In addition to Diane Blaha, 9 other CRVL executives reported Sell trades in the last month.

Insider Trading: June 18, 2019 (BIV.com)
The following is a list of stock trades made by corporate executives, directors and other company insiders of B.C.’s public companies filed in the week ended June 12, 2019. The information comes from a compilation of required reports filed with the BC Securities Commission obtained from DisclosureNet.com. Insider Daniel Thomas Macinnis, director. Company: MAG Silver Corp. (TSX:MAG). Shares owned: 316,288. Trade date: June 6. Trade total: $375,000. Trade: Sale of 25,000 shares at a price of $15 per share.