A Famous Hedge Fund Chief Who Managed to Net Record Returns as Stocks Fell in 2022 Says Investors Should Look Abroad to Profit (Fortune)
U.S. stocks have consistently outperformed their international peers over the past three decades, but AQR Capital Management cofounder and chief investment officer Cliff Asness believes the streak may be coming to an end. “Looking back, U.S. outperformance since 1990 can largely be explained by relative richening against other equity markets,” the billionaire investor wrote in an article for The Journal of Portfolio Management released April 28, describing how American stocks have become increasingly expensive compared with international counterparts. “Investors betting on continued U.S. outperformance may be making a perilous assumption that this richening will continue, despite historically high relative valuations suggesting the opposite is more likely.”
Dan Loeb’s Activism Is Not Pulling His Hedge Fund Out of the Red (Institutional Investor)
Third Point posted a slight uptick in April, but not enough to turn things around. At the end of 2022, Third Point’s Dan Loeb predicted that the time was ripe for activism. He said stocks were cheap and corporate executives had taken their eye off the ball because of what he called the “delusion” around ESG and “stakeholder capitalism.”
Bacon Awarded $203m in Defamation Case (Hedge Week)
Louis Bacon, the founder and chief executive of New York-based global macro hedge fund Moore Capital Management, ‘made’ $203 million this week, but the cash came from the resolution of a long-running court battle rather than any trading prowess, according to a report by the Financial Times. A New York judge awarded Bacon the money in damages at the end of a bitter and long-running defamation case against his former Bahamas neighbour, Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
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Higher Performance Fee for Opportunity (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Swedish asset manager Atlant Fonder is raising the performance fee – the cut from above-benchmark returns – for its largest fund, Atlant Opportunity. The performance-based fee, which is paid on returns exceeding the 90-day Swedish treasury bills, will be raised from 10 percent to 15 percent on June 1. Atlant Opportunity, the largest fund under the umbrella of multi-fund boutique Atlant Fonder with SEK 5.4 billion under management, was launched in January 2016 with no performance fee.
Pushpay Gone, and for Some Offshore Hedge Funds, for Less Than Hoped (AFR.com)
Here’s an under-the-radar development hedge funds won’t want to miss. The takeover of dual-listed church payments company Pushpay sailed through a shareholder vote last week, handing control to the Sixth Street and BGH Capital consortium. But the fine print of the deal shows that while most shareholders are set to receive $NZ1.42 ($1.33) per share, a smaller group of “specified shareholders” – profiled as 10 professional offshore event-driven hedge fund investors controlling 10.3 per cent of the stock – agreed to accept $NZ1.34 per share.
Hedge Funds Betting Against S&P 500: Good News for Bitcoin and Crypto? (Blockworks.co)
As hedge funds increase bearish bets on US equities, with S&P 500 futures short positions at a roughly 12-year high, experts are pondering the potential impacts on the crypto market. The S&P 500 COT Index, which represents the difference in net positions between large non-commercial speculators and large commercial hedgers, is now at its lowest point since Sept. 19, 2011.
Norway Fund to Vote Against Enel Chairman Candidate Paolo Scaroni (Reuters)
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest single stock market investor, will vote against Paolo Scaroni becoming chair of the board at utility Enel (ENEI.MI), adding to a growing revolt over the Italian Treasury’s nomination. The Norway fund joins other Enel shareholders which are opposed to Scaroni’s appointment because of concerns over governance at the state-backed utility. The fund will vote in favour of Marco Mazzucchelli, it said on its website on Friday. He is a former banker who is the candidate for chairman proposed by hedge fund Covalis Capital in a challenge to Italy’s Treasury, Enel’s largest shareholder with almost a 24% stake.
ChatGPT Can Pick Stocks Better than Your Fund Manager (CNN)
A basket of stocks selected by ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has far outperformed some of the most popular investment funds in the United Kingdom. Between March 6 and April 28, a dummy portfolio of 38 stocks gained 4.9% while 10 leading investment funds clocked an average loss of 0.8%, according to an experiment conducted by financial comparison site finder.com. It wouldn’t “be long until large numbers of consumers try to use [ChatGPT] for financial gain,” Jon Ostler, Finder’s CEO, said in a statement earlier this week.
Friday 5/5 Insider Buying Report: STEL, GD (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Stellar Bancorp’s Director, Joe Penland Sr., made a $1.72M buy of STEL, purchasing 79,512 shares at a cost of $21.68 a piece. So far Penland Sr. is in the green, up about 5.3% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $22.82. Stellar Bancorp is trading up about 2.6% on the day Friday. And on Tuesday, Director Mark Malcolm bought $1.01M worth of General Dynamics, buying 4,700 shares at a cost of $214.47 each. This purchase marks the first one filed by Malcolm in the past year. General Dynamics is trading up about 0.7% on the day Friday. Bargain hunters are able to pick up GD even cheaper than Malcolm did, with the stock trading as low as $209.01 at last check today which is 2.5% below Malcolm’s purchase price.
Microsoft, Snap And 2 Other Stocks Insiders Are Selling (Benzinga)
Microsoft: The Trade: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) EVP, Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff sold a total of 30,000 shares at an average price of $306.09. The insider received around $9.18 million from selling those shares. Biogen: The Trade: Biogen Inc. (BIIB) EVP, Human Resources Ginger Gregory sold a total of 2,681 shares at an average price of $300.00. The insider received around $804.3 thousand from selling those shares.
