David Tepper is Planning on Converting Hedge Fund Into a Family Office (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager David Tepper is planning on returning Appaloosa Management’s capital to investors and converting it to a family office. No timetable has been set on returning the money however, a spokesperson for Tepper confirmed to CNBC. The shift would represent a new era for the hedge fund leader, who founded Appaloosa in 1993 and grew it into a powerhouse, returning 25% a year.
Kyle Bass Is Wrong on Hong Kong’s Peg, Too (Bloomberg)
Having failed to preside over a collapse in the yuan, hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass has a new target: the Hong Kong dollar peg. He’s wrong about that, too. Bass is shorting the Hong Kong currency and is “very long dollars,” the founder of Hayman Capital Management told Bloomberg TV in an interview Tuesday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has spent 80% of its reserves over the past year defending the peg, he said in an investor letter on the city’s “impending crisis.” That prompted a riposte from the de facto central bank, which said his analysis was based on a misunderstanding.
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Q1 2019 Hedge Fund Asset Flows (Preqin.com)
Marking the fourth consecutive quarter of outflows, $22.1bn left the hedge fund industry in Q1 2019 – and yet, despite this net capital withdrawal, industry assets under management grew by 3.3% to reach $3.56tn. As seen in our Hedge Fund Performance Update: April 2019, the hedge fund industry as a whole is riding a wave of good performance, and the benefits affect many areas of the asset class. Consistent outflows are not stopping the general growth that hedge funds are seeing, despite fund managers in every region and funds of every size recording a higher ratio of outflows to inflows in Q1 2019.
DoorDash Confirms $12 Billion Value in New Funding Led By Hedge Fund (The Information)
DoorDash, which has been one of the biggest thorns in Uber’s side lately, confirmed The Information’s report last week that it would raise new funds at a valuation of up to $12 billion. In fact, the pre-investment valuation announced today is exactly that amount. The $600 million financing is led by Darsana Capital Partners, a New York-based hedge fund run by Anand Desai that last year backed electronic cigarette maker Juul.
Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Target Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Over Sears Bankruptcy (CNBC)
Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are targeting Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, raising questions about his time on Sears Holdings’ board of directors and his relationship with the troubled company’s former CEO, Eddie Lampert. In a four-page letter sent Thursday morning, Warren and Ocasio-Cortez ask Mnuchin a series of questions about his advisory role in Lampert’s leadership decisions. They also asked if Mnuchin had sought to waive an ethics agreement in which he promised to “not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties” where Sears was involved.
Activist Wants Legoland Owner to Find a Buyer (MarketWatch)
U.S. activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital on Thursday released a public letter recommending Merlin Entertainments PLC (MERL.LN) seek a private buyer. San Francisco-based ValueAct said it has a 9.3% stake in London-listed Merlin, which operates attractions including the Legoland parks franchise. The activist said it backed Merlin’s management and long-term plans but noted its struggling share price.
Hedge fund-owned MNG reduces stake in Gannett to 4.2% (USA Today)
The hedge fund-owned newspaper company that launched a hostile takeover bid to acquire Gannett Co. in January has reduced its stake in the company, which owns USA TODAY and more than 100 local media properties. Alden Global Capital‘s MNG Enterprises Inc. now owns 4.2% of Gannett, according to a document Gannett filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. That ownership percentage is down from 7.5%.
Some Hedge Funds Dodged the Worst of Tesla’s Latest Tantrum (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds like Millennium Management LLC and DE Shaw & Co. trimmed their exposure to Tesla Inc. just before the company’s latest drop during the second quarter wiped out roughly $16 billion in market value. The pair of funds sold close to 850,000 shares in the first three months of the year, according to quarterly filings for the period ended March 31 — ahead of the latest round of bearish criticism from Wall Street analysts. Millennium and DE Shaw held onto some of their positions, while funds like Water Street Capital Inc. and Light Street Capital Management LLC threw in the towel just in the nick of time.
Thursday 5/23 Insider Buying Report: EOLS, OTEL (Nasdaq.com)
At Evolus, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, Director Kristine Romine bought 40,562 shares of EOLS, for a cost of $19.25 each, for a total investment of $780,818. Investors can bag EOLS even cheaper than Romine did, with the stock changing hands as low as $16.62 in trading on Thursday which is 13.7% below Romine’s purchase price. Evolus is trading down about 2.9% on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Romine purchased EOLS at 5 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $727,260 at an average of $17.50 per share. And at Otelco, there was insider buying on Wednesday, by Ira Sochet who bought 27,941 shares at a cost of $15.32 each, for a trade totaling $428,100. Before this latest buy, Sochet purchased OTEL on 23 other occasions during the past year, for a total cost of $6.71M at an average of $15.81 per share. Otelco is trading up about 0.5% on the day Thursday.
Mettler-toledo International Inc (MTD) President and CEO Oliver A Filliol Sold $24.6 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President and CEO of Mettler-toledo International Inc (NYSE:MTD) Oliver A Filliol sold 34,000 shares of MTD on 05/22/2019 at an average price of $724.47 a share. The total sale was $24.6 million. Mettler-Toledo International Inc supplies weighing and precision instruments to customers in the life sciences, industrial and food retail industries. Its products are laboratory scales, pipettes, pH meters, thermal analysis equipment and others. Mettler-Toledo International Inc has a market cap of $17.64 billion; its shares were traded at around $711.39 with a P/E ratio of 34.25 and P/S ratio of 6.15. Mettler-Toledo International Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 13.00% over the past ten years.
SEC Charges Unregistered Broker Who Sold Woodbridge Securities to Retail Investors (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Charles Nilosek, a Massachusetts-based external sales agent for Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC, with illegally selling Woodbridge securities to retail investors while acting as an unregistered broker. According to the complaint, Nilosek was among Woodbridge’s top revenue producers. The SEC previously charged Woodbridge and its former owner, Robert H. Shapiro, and Woodbridge’s other highest-earning unregistered brokers. In January, a federal court in Florida ordered Woodbridge, related companies, and Shapiro together to pay $1 billion for operating this Ponzi scheme. The SEC also charged Woodbridge’s two former directors of investments for their roles in Woodbridge’s Ponzi scheme.
The Claims President of Progressive (NYSE: PGR) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Claims President of Progressive (PGR), Michael Sieger, sold shares of PGR for $593.6K. Following Michael Sieger’s last PGR Sell transaction on March 05, 2019, the stock climbed by 8.0%. In addition to Michael Sieger, 2 other PGR executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
Armour Residential Reit Inc (ARR) Co-CEO and CIO Scott Ulm Bought $1.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
Co-CEO and CIO of Armour Residential Reit Inc (NYSE:ARR) Scott Ulm bought 80,000 shares of ARR on 05/22/2019 at an average price of $17.93 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $1.4 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT Inc invests in and manages a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage backed securities. It invests in residential mortgage backed securities issued or guaranteed by a United States Government-sponsored entity. ARMOUR Residential REIT Inc has a market cap of $1.07 billion; its shares were traded at around $17.97 with and P/S ratio of 2.64. The dividend yield of ARMOUR Residential REIT Inc stocks is 12.69%. ARMOUR Residential REIT Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 18.60% over the past ten years.
