Activist Investor Blackwells Adamant About Peloton (Opalesque)
Last month, activist investor Blackwells Capital said it had asked Peloton Interactive Inc., a stationary-bike maker in which it has a stake of nearly 5%, to fire its CEO John Foley and look into a sale. Indeed, Blackwells believes Peloton could be an attractive acquisition target for larger technology or fitness-oriented companies, ranging from Adidas to Amazon to Oracle and Sony. Blackwells accused Foley of managing with “unbridled optimism rather than discipline” and blamed him for bloated costs, poor decision making, and poor capital allocation, said Reuters. Peloton became a market darling during the COVID-19 pandemic and its market capitalization surged to $50bn before tumbling to $9.7bn. The company’s share price surged in the wake of reports that some companies, including Amazon, were discussing making an overture to the company.
The Hedge Fund That’s Developing its Own Programming Language (eFinancialCareers.com)
It’s not just Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Long ago, investment banks had a tendency to develop their own programming languages to compensate for the perceived failings of languages in existence at the time. Now, it seems that hedge fund Bridgewater is doing the same. In various job adverts for roles in its engineering business, Bridgewater refers to the importance of an internal language within its technology division. Technologists at Bridgewater work on “novel languages that enable the systemization of logic,” says the fund’s own website. A current opening for a senior software engineer talks about Bridgewater’s “own financial language” that’s used to “manipulate incoming data and express top secret investment logic.”
Thursday 2/10 Insider Buying Report: RCKT, EXPO (Nasdaq.com)
At Rocket Pharmaceuticals, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, CEO Gaurav Shah purchased 22,000 shares of RCKT, for a cost of $17.34 each, for a total investment of $381,513. So far Shah is in the green, up about 20.5% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $20.90. Rocket Pharmaceuticals is trading up about 8% on the day Thursday. This purchase marks the first one filed by Shah in the past year. And on Tuesday, Director George H. Brown purchased $170,353 worth of Exponent, purchasing 2,000 shares at a cost of $85.18 each. This buy marks the first one filed by Brown in the past year. Exponent Inc. is trading up about 0.4% on the day Thursday.
Executives Sell Around $44M Of 5 Stocks (Benzinga)
Bill.com Holdings: The Trade: Bill.com Holdings, Inc. BILL -2.76% CFO John Rettig disposed a total of 35,000 shares at an average price of $233.59. The insider received around $8.18 million as a result of the transaction. Alphabet: The Trade: Alphabet Inc. GOOG -0.5% Director Sergey Brin sold a total of 11,101 shares at an average price of $2,766.36. The insider received around $30.71 million from selling those shares. ServiceNow: The Trade: ServiceNow, Inc. NOW -3.35% Director Frederic B Luddy sold a total of 6,600 shares at an average price of $582.16. The insider received $3.84 million as a result of the transaction.
Hedge Funds Posts Worst January Return Since 2016 as Markets Priced in Faster Pace of Monetary Policy Tightening by the Federal Reserve (Opalesque)
Opalesque Industry Update – The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index declined -1.05% in January 2022, outperforming the global equity market as represented by the MSCI ACWI (Local) which declined -4.91% over the same period. Global equities tanked as rising bond yields and the escalating tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine led to heightened risk aversion among market participants.
