Hedge Fund Manager David Einhorn Unveils Two New Trades at the Sohn Conference (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn discussed two positions his firm has taken, both relating to leasing in the transportation industry. The Greenlight Capital founder and president said his fund has a long position on AerBus and a short on GATX. AerCap is involved in airplane leasing, while GATX is a leader in rail cars. Speaking favorably of both industries, he said the airline sector has some advantages over rail that make AerCap the better choice over GATX, which he thinks could be overvalued.
Hedge Fund Marcato Opposes Acreage’s Sale to Cannabis Producer Canopy (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Hedge fund Marcato Capital Management said on Monday it opposed marijuana company Acreage Holdings Inc’s $3.4 billion sale to rival Canopy Growth Corp, arguing Acreage was too hasty in agreeing to a deal at too low a price. Marcato, which owns 2.7 percent of Acreage, wrote to the company’s board of directors to argue that the proposed takeover, which was agreed to last month and will be voted on by shareholders next month, is “lopsided in Canopy’s favor.”
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Activist Reveals Carrizo Stake and Wants Driller to Consider Sale (Bloomberg)
Activist investor Lion Point Capital has built a position in Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and wants the driller to explore a sale or merger with another Permian explorer to gain scale. The New York-based hedge fund has an economic exposure to about 6 percent of Carrizo and believes the company is undervalued, according to a filing Monday. Lion Point, which was founded by a former Elliott Management Corp. executive, has held discussions with management about its views.
Bridgewater Co-CEO Eileen Murray Weighs Leaving World’s Largest Hedge Fund (The Wall Street Journal)
Bridgewater Associates co-Chief Executive Officer Eileen Murray has held repeated conversations inside and outside of the firm about leaving the world’s largest hedge fund, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Murray was recently contacted by representatives of Wells Fargo & Co. about the bank’s open CEO role, people familiar with the matter said. Wells Fargo representatives also called people close to Ms. Murray as part of that process. Ms. Murray subsequently tipped off the job possibility to others at Bridgewater.
Platinum Co-Founder’s ‘Rage’ at Lawyer May Land Him in Jail (Bloomberg)
U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to revoke Platinum Partners LLP co-founder Mark Nordlicht’s bail, saying he “forcibly intimidated” a government attorney last week during a break in his fraud trial. Nordlicht and two other former executives of the defunct hedge fund are accused of inflating the value of Platinum’s largest assets and using loans and money from new investors to pay off old ones, while falsely claiming to regulators the firm had about $1.7 billion in assets under management.
Sector Asset Management Becomes PRI Signatory (HedgeNordic.com)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Sector Asset Management, a Norwegian independent hedge fund platform, has become a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and thereby confirmed their commitment to responsible investment. Sector Asset Management’s business model involves partnering with independent investment teams by supporting them with operational, legal and compliance infrastructure. Three members of the Nordic Hedge Index – Incentive Active Value Fund, Sector Healthcare Fund, and Sector Zen Fund – currently operate under the Sector umbrella.
Inside Berkshire Hathaway’s American Dream (Forbes)
Like tens of thousands of others, I made the pilgrimage this past weekend to Omaha, “somewhere in middle America” as Adam Duritz once sang. The country’s 40th-largest city was about to be inundated by fifty thousand Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B +0% investors, here to give chairman Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger the rockstar treatment at the Annual Shareholder Meeting.
The Words ‘Carl Icahn’ And ‘Insider Trading’ Keep Popping Up Next To One Another (Deal Breaker)
Carl Icahn’s short-lived and possibly-nonexistent role as Lord High Commissioner for Shredding Regulations may not have worked out exactly as Elizabeth Warren & co. had hoped. Specifically, amidst all of the wall-building and child-caging and tax-cutting and court-packing, he just never could get POTUS to remember that the most important thing was doing something about those damned renewable fuel credits that were costing his CVR Energy oil refining business a fortune. But that doesn’t mean his occasional late-night phone calls with the president were a total waste of time.
Monday 5/6 Insider Buying Report: BIIB, UNH (Nasdaq.com)
At Biogen (BIIB), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, Director Alexander J. Denner purchased 118,342 shares of BIIB, at a cost of $229.94 each, for a total investment of $27.21M. Biogen is trading up about 0.2% on the day Monday. Before this latest buy, Denner made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $20.57M shares at a cost of $327.59 a piece.
CFO Insider Trading Anomaly: April Results +4.53% (Seeking Alpha)
According to research, CFOs derive statistically and economically higher abnormal returns from their purchases of company shares than CEOs do. For April 27, CFO Insider purchases of 26 different stocks were reported with the SEC for average gains to the end of April of 4.53%. Four stocks were purchased by CFOs more than a month prior to the April reported date and account for average gains of +19.8%. Early test results of the CFO Insider Trading anomaly support the prior research that excess returns from insiders do occur and that CFOs represent the best returns among all insiders.
New Insider-Trading Norms See Cos Rush to Fortify Digital Compliance (TheHinduBusinessLine.com)
Now, the onus of compliance with norms rests mainly with board members: Experts. SEBI’s insider-trading norms have pushed up the requirement for maintenance of a digital data base for listed companies and there is a rush for compliance-related software in the market, experts told BusinessLine. The insider-trading norms which came into effect from April have forced companies to keep a digital record, which can be audited any time by the regulator, with regard to generation of unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI). According to the new rules, any body found to be holding UPSI without purpose will be deemed to have indulged in insider-trading.
Unitedhealth Group Inc (UNH) CEO David S Wichmann Bought $4.6 million of Shares (GuruFocus)
CEO of Unitedhealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) David S Wichmann bought 20,000 shares of UNH on 05/03/2019 at an average price of $231.79 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $4.6 million. UnitedHealth Group Inc is a diversified health care company in the United States. It designs products, provides services and applies technologies that improve access to health and well-being services, and make health care more affordable. UnitedHealth Group Inc has a market cap of $220.87 billion; its shares were traded at around $231.95 with a P/E ratio of 18.02 and P/S ratio of 0.97. The dividend yield of UnitedHealth Group Inc stocks is 1.55%.
