Cramer: I Spoke to David Tepper – He’s Concerned About Coronavirus and Says US Needs Fiscal Help (CNBC)
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday that hedge fund legend David Tepper is worried about the economic fallout from the coronavirus. “I spoke to David this morning and yesterday, and it is the ‘game changer’ make no mistake about it,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “He’s very, very concerned.” Cramer’s reference to “game changer” is a call back to what the Appaloosa Management founder told him in an interview last month at the Super Bowl in Miami for TheStreet.
Activist Teleios Seeks Maisons du Monde Talks Over Board Moves – Letter (Reuters)
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) – Activist hedge fund firm Teleios Capital Partners on Monday wrote to the board of French furniture and home decor company Maisons Du Monde urging it to seek support from major shareholders before any appointments to the board are announced. Teleios, MDM’s biggest shareholder with around 13.3% of its stock, said it had repeatedly raised concerns with the company regarding its operating performance, investor communication and corporate governance, it said in a letter here seen by Reuters.
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Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place (The Wall Street Journal)
Twitter Inc. and activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. have agreed to a truce that will shake up the social-media company’s board but leave Chief Executive Jack Dorsey in place. The deal halts what was shaping up as one of the highest profile clashes between an activist investor to oust a founder of a high-profile tech company.
H2O’s Star Funds Sink to Worst Among Peers in Just One Month (Bloomberg)
Natixis SA-backed H2O Asset Management has fallen prey to panicking global markets after three of its most profitable strategies in 2019 topped a ranking of the past month’s worst performers. The funds, which manage about 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) between them, are at the bottom of more than 500 tracked by Kepler Partners that use hedge fund-type tactics to make money. They were blindsided by the turmoil that’s rocking the world’s markets after bets on oil and volatility backfired.
Having a Digital Strategy will Help Fund Managers Embrace Transformational Change (Hedge Week)
Investment managers stand at a crossroads today. Faced with a rapidly changing digital world, they must determine which path to take to help them transform their business models and respond to the needs of a younger generation of investors. One key aspect to this transformation story is how investment managers successfully integrate people, processes and technology, as part of a sophisticated digital strategy, to adapt to the digital age. Data, and the way that is ingested, processed, stored and managed, is one of the main pressure points to overcome. As SEI points out in its recent white paper, Evolution in Asset Management, “virtually everyone is familiar with the potential value of data, but it is still not treated like a precious commodity by many firms. Through force of habit, data acquisition, integration, management, protection, analysis and disposal still often occur in an ad hoc way”.
Windham Capital launches ESG Risk Scaling Strategy (Opalesque.com)
Boston-based asset management firm Windham Capital Management has launched the Windham ESG Risk Scaling strategy. The asset management firm specializing in risk-based solutions said that its ESG strategy is designed to deliver meaningful protection to a diversified portfolio of ESG-qualified ETFs during significant market drawdowns while providing competitive returns in less adverse markets. “Increasingly, investors are shifting their focus toward sustainable investing,” said Mark Kritzman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Windham Capital Management. “Our goal is to offer a solution for sustainable investing which, at the same time, enables investors to grow and preserve their wealth.”
VC Daily: Steven Cohen Raising Venture Fund; Fintech Apps Raise Fresh Capital (The Wall Street Journal)
Happy Monday. Twice a year, Y Combinator holds one of the most popular Silicon Valley events for venture investors, its Demo Day in San Francisco for its startups to pitch to investors. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the firm announced Friday that it is moving the entire program, scheduled for later this month, online. Y Combinator will now upload pre-recorded video pitches from the startups simultaneously for all investors to view, along with online tools to connect with the startups.
Insider Buying: Two CEOs Make Million-Dollar Purchases. Should You Be Buying Too? (Forbes)
Two CEOs have made million-dollar buys of their company’s stock in February and March. At Continental Resources (CLR), CEO William Berry spent $1.6 million to increase his holding by 90,000 shares. He now owns 931,301 shares, worth about $13.8 million at Friday’s prices. Berry has been Continental’s CEO only since the beginning of this year. He spent three decades at Conoco Phillips and Phillips Petroleum Co. He joined Continental’s board of directors in 2014. Harold Hamm, the company’s founder, yielded the CEO title but remains executive chairman and owns 77% of the company’s shares. Hamm is famous as a billionaire (he paid a billion dollars in his divorce), and rags-to-riches story. He was the youngest of 13 children born to parents who were sharecroppers.
Monday 3/9 Insider Buying Report: TRIP, SNR (Nasdaq.com)
At Tripadvisor, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, CEO Stephen Kaufer purchased 44,444 shares of TRIP, for a cost of $21.73 each, for a total investment of $965,768. Investors have the opportunity to snag TRIP even cheaper than Kaufer did, with the stock changing hands as low as $20.21 in trading on Monday which is 7.0% below Kaufer’s purchase price. Tripadvisor is trading off about 4% on the day Monday. And also on Thursday, Director Robert F. Savage Jr. bought $636,032 worth of New Senior Investment Group, buying 100,000 shares at a cost of $6.36 a piece. This purchase marks the first one filed by Savage Jr. in the past year. New Senior Investment Group is trading off about 10.6% on the day Monday. Bargain hunters can grab SNR at a price even lower than Savage Jr. did, with the stock changing hands as low as $5.53 at last check today which is 13.1% below Savage Jr.’s purchase price.
A Director at 1St Source (NASDAQ: SRCE) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at 1St Source (SRCE), Daniel B. Fitzpatrick, bought shares of SRCE for $20.45K. Following this transaction Daniel B. Fitzpatrick’s holding in the company was increased by 1.43% to a total of $1.42 million. Based on 1St Source’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $94.82 million and quarterly net profit of $21.82 million.
Notable Insider Buys Last Week: Newell Brands, PNC Financial And More (Benzinga)
Here are a few of significant insider purchases reported last week as volatility ruled the markets. American Homes 4 Rent: Two American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) 4.33% directors took advantage of recent volatility in the shares. They picked up more than 2.15 million shares of this real estate investment trust altogether last week at $27.49 to $29 per share via trust. The purchase totaled more than $60.91 million. The chief financial officer sold 30,000 shares last week as well. Newell Brands: A director and an executive at Newell Brands Inc (NWL) 5.26% purchased about 323,400 shares of this consumer and commercial products maker via trust last week. At $15.01 to $16.60 per share, the purchase totaled more than $5.16 million. The director is the son of billionaire investor Carl Icahn, and his stake is nearly 729,000 shares.
Insider Weekends: Father-Daughter Team At American Homes 4 Rent Buy Again (Seeking Alpha)
Insider buying increased last week. Notable Insider Buys: American Homes 4 Rent, Energy Transfer LP, Kinder Morgan Inc., Newell Brands Inc., Planet Fitness Inc. Notable Insider Sells: SBA Communications Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Apollo Global Management Inc., Tellurian Inc., BlackLine Inc. The Coronavirus has reached our shores and appears to be spreading across multiple states leading to several large companies, including Apple (APPL), Twitter (TWTR) and Palantir, asking their corporate employees or employees at West Coast offices to work from home.
Matador Resources Co (MTDR) Chairman and CEO Joseph Wm Foran Bought $152,320 of Shares (Guru Focus)
Chairman and CEO of Matador Resources Co., Joseph Wm Foran, bought 17,000 shares of MTDR on 03/05/2020 at an average price of $8.96 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $152,320. Matador Resources Co is an independent energy company, engaged in the exploration, development, production and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States, with an emphasis on oil and natural gas shale and other unconventional plays. Matador Resources Co has a market cap of $763.529 million; its shares were traded at around $6.55 with a P/E ratio of 8.85 and P/S ratio of 0.79. GuruFocus has detected 1 severe warning sign with Matador Resources Co.
