Billionaire Ray Dalio: ‘Of Course’ Rich People Like Me Should Pay More Taxes (CNBC)
Financier Ray Dalio is on a mission to let everyone know that wealth inequality has become so extreme it is driving a dangerous wedge in society. The 69-year-old is on the fortunate side of that wealth gap: He’s the founder of the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, which has made him a billionaire more than 18 times over, according to Forbes. But he’s also willing to open his wallet. “So should taxes on people like you be raised?” Dalio was asked by Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
Exclusive: Loeb’s Third Point Building Stake to Pressure Sony – Sources (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point LLC is building a stake in Sony Corp to push for changes that include shedding some businesses, the second time in six years it has targeted the Japanese electronics maker, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. Once a market leader in consumer electronics, Sony is now in the midst of a turnaround effort spearheaded by Kenichiro Yoshida, its chief executive who formerly served at its chief financial officer.
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Hedge Fund Backer Makes High-Stakes Offer in Europe Drive (Bloomberg)
A U.S. investor who has backed hedge fund managers from John Paulson to Kyle Bass is pushing into Europe to offer managers an unusual choice: They can take a bigger share of profits with the catch that they risk losing all their money if the bets go awry. New York-based Prelude Capital Management, which specializes in a niche offering called first-loss funds, has hired former Bank of America Corp. prime brokerage executive Adam Karp to lead its expansion within Europe, according to people with knowledge of the matter. First-loss funds typically offer hedge fund managers an opportunity to hold on to more than half their profits, in exchange for taking on the bulk of the risk.
Edward Lampert Offers to Buy Remaining Shares of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores (The Wall Street Journal)
Edward Lampert is looking to buy the roughly 41% of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores that he and his hedge-fund ESL Investments don’t currently own. Through an affiliate called Transform Holdco LLC, the former chief executive of Sears Holdings Corp. is offering shareholders of the Sears spinoff, which includes its hardware and appliance stores, $2.25 a share, or about $21 million.
Whopper Of A Turnaround: At Burger King, The 3G Capital Model Actually Worked (Forbes)
Challenge: Make a 60-year-old hamburger chain into something cool. Daniel Schwartz accepted that assignment six years ago after 3G Capital took over Burger King and named Schwartz chief executive. He was 32. Burger King was a tired outfit, with a confusing menu and sales going sideways. Its restaurants averaged half the revenue of McDonald’s. But where there is underperformance, there is opportunity. Schwartz slashed overhead at the Miami headquarters. He streamlined food preparation. He dished out stock to middle managers. He shrank the payroll and the capital budget by selling company-owned stores to franchisees.
Asia Ex-Japan Hedge Funds Already Up 12% in Q1 (Opalesque.com)
Asia ex-Japan hedge funds posted strong gains for both March and in the first quarter, performance data released Friday by Hedge Fund Research showed. Asia ex-Japan Index added +4.3% in March and +12.0% for Q1 2019, the report said. Aggregate hedge fund returns, led by Macro and CTA strategies, were strongly positive in the first quarter, in sharp contrast to the previous quarter, revealed the report. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained +1.0% for the month, bringing the 1Q19 performance to +5.9%. Risk Parity strategies surged in 1Q19 with the HFR Risk Parity Vol 15 Index advancing +14.9%, the strongest quarter since index inception.
This Hedge Fund is Moving from Big Tech to Content Makers. Here’s… (CNBC)
Dan Niles, AlphaOne Capital‘s founding partner, joins “Squawk Alley” to talk about why the hedge fund is moving away from big tech giants and toward content makers.
Final Defendant Sentenced in Insider Trading Case (MassDevice.com)
Federal prosecutors have wrapped up an insider trading case based on alleged tips from a Bank of America consultant on pending corporate transactions, including Abbott‘s (NYSE:ABT) $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical. Rodolfo Sablon, 39, of Miami, Fla., was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for his role in the insider trading scheme based on tips from Bank of America technical consultant Daniel Rivas. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan also sentenced Sablon to two years of supervised release, including six months in a community confinement center, and ordered him to pay $923,566 in forfeiture and a $5,000 fine. Sablon pleaded guilty in July 2018 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and fraud.
Monday 4/8 Insider Buying Report: GAIA, NTWK (Nasdaq.com)
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. At Gaia, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, Director Paul Howard Sutherland bought 3,500 shares of GAIA, for a cost of $9.03 each, for a total investment of $31,603. Sutherland was up about 7.3% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with GAIA trading as high as $9.69 at last check today. Gaia is trading down about 5% on the day Monday. Before this latest buy, Sutherland bought GAIA at 3 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $56,867 at an average of $9.32 per share.
Insider Weekends: President Of New Spinoff Purchases $4 Million Worth Of Shares (Seeking Alpha)
Insider buying declined significantly last week. Notable Insider Buys: Cyclerion Therapeutics, Inc., Revlon, Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., and Costco Wholesale Corporation. Notable Insider Sales: Facebook, Inc., CarGurus, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc., The Southern Company, and GoPro, Inc. Insider buying declined significantly last week with insiders purchasing $27.16 million of stock compared to $79.08 million in the week prior. Selling also declined sharply with insiders selling $747.39 million of stock last week compared to $1.87 billion in the week prior.
Insider Buys Of The Week: Costco, Walgreens, Revlon (Benzinga)
Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10 percent owners really only buy shares of a company for one reason: they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty. The following is a look at a few notable insider purchases reported in the past week. Revlon: Revlon Inc REV 0.28% saw a director return to the buy window again last week. At $19.05 to $21.59 apiece, the 180,000 shares acquired via trust totaled nearly $3.7 million. That brought their stake up to more than 46 million shares, which compares with more than 56 million shares listed as outstanding.
Linde PLC (NYSE:LIN) Executives are Making Moves with Their Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, the CFO of Linde plc (LIN), Matthew White, sold shares of LIN for $6.16M. Following Matthew White’s last LIN Sell transaction on February 05, 2019, the stock climbed by 20.5%. In addition to Matthew White, one other LIN executive reported Sell trades in the last month. Based on Linde plc’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $5.82 billion and quarterly net profit of $2.98 billion. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $3 billion and had a net profit of $462 million. Currently, Linde plc has an average volume of 662.6K. LIN’s market cap is $101B and the company has a P/E ratio of 16.37.
