Hedge Funds Look to Regroup After Q1 Pummelling (Hedge Week)
Hedge funds suffered their second biggest loss on record last month, tumbling 7.25 per cent on average as the sharp economic downturn following the Covid-19 outbreak took its toll on performance. New data from eVestment indicates managers fell some 9.87 per cent on average during Q1, while the S&P 500 – which plummeted more than 12 per cent in March – lost close to a fifth of its value in the first three months of 2020. But with hedge fund strategies of various stripes now looking to capitalise on the recent turmoil, raising new capital to tap into cheap assets, the fallout is offering the industry to regroup and prove its worth to a shell-shocked investor base still counting the costs of the collapse elsewhere in their portfolios. Among the names said to be raising new capital are Sir Chris Hohn’s TCI, DE Shaw and Covalis Capital, according to recent media reports.
Activist Hedge Fund Starboard Pounces on U.S. Companies in Turmoil (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Most activist shareholders have refrained from challenging the boards of U.S. companies during this season of annual shareholder meetings, as businesses reel from the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. Not Starboard Value LP. The New York-based hedge fund, which Jeffrey Smith spun out of investment firm Ramius in 2011, is pursuing proxy contests against five U.S. companies, even as rivals remain largely silent, according to a review of regulatory filings.
Wednesday 4/15 Insider Buying Report: TREC, UUUU (Nasdaq.com)
On Monday, Trecora Resources’ CEO, Patrick D. Quarles, made a $38,538 purchase of TREC, buying 7,349 shares at a cost of $5.24 a piece. Bargain hunters can pick up TREC at a price even lower than Quarles did, with the stock trading as low as $4.93 at last check today which is 6.0% below Quarles’s purchase price. Trecora Resources is trading trading flat on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Quarles purchased TREC at 9 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $674,531 at an average of $8.99 per share. And at Energy Fuels, there was insider buying on Monday, by Director Robert W. Kirkwood who bought 10,000 shares for a cost of $1.28 each, for a trade totaling $12,800. Energy Fuels Inc is trading up about 3.6% on the day Wednesday. Kirkwood was up about 25.8% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with UUUU trading as high as $1.61 at last check today.
Hedge Funds Profiting from Covid-19 ‘Must Give More Back’ (Standard.co.uk)
Hedge fund tycoons have made £1.5 billion in profits by shorting UK shares during the financial crisis, according to Evening Standard calculations that triggered calls for curbs on their activities and a windfall tax. Firms such as Citadel, owned by billionaire US investor Ken Griffin, AQR Capital, co-founded by billionaire hedge funder Cliff Asness, wealthy London financier Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management and Sir Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace were the most prolific winners from the market crash.
The SVP Gen. Counsel & Secretary of Capital Senior Living (NYSE: CSU) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the SVP Gen. Counsel & Secretary of Capital Senior Living (CSU), David Brickman, bought shares of CSU for $4,914. Following this transaction David Brickman’s holding in the company was increased by 2.04% to a total of $242.7K. In addition to David Brickman, 2 other CSU executives reported Buy trades in the last month.
Sen. Tillis Says Fellow North Carolina Republican Burr ‘Owes Everybody an Explanation’ on Self-Dealing, Insider Trading Allegations (NationalReview.com)
Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) on Wednesday said fellow North Carolina Republican senator Richard Burr should respond to recent allegations of insider trading and self-dealing. “I suspect that there is an investigation in the DOJ, and we’ll have to see where the facts lead,” Tillis told radio host Hugh Hewitt on The Hugh Hewitt Show. “Regardless of what happens with the investigation, I think Senator Burr owes everybody in North Carolina and the United States an explanation, and we’ll see where the investigation goes,” Tillis said. Regarding whether Burr should give up his chairmanship of the Senate Intel Committee until the facts are fully known, “that’s a decision…that would be better left to him and the leadership.”
