Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio Backs China Despite Trade War Escalation (CNBC)
Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, urged investors to have bets on “both horses in the race” amid rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China. In a video posted online Tuesday, Dalio argued that investors still have a historic opportunity to buy into China as it opens up its markets to foreign investments.
US Hedge Fund Titan Steve Cohen Takes 5.1% Stake in Luckin Coffee (ChinaKnowledge.com)
Aug 07, 2019 (China Knowledge) – Wall Street billionaire Steven Cohen‘s hedge fund Point72 Asset Management has acquired a 5.1% stake in China’s Luckin Coffee, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The transaction gave Steven Cohen control over 17 million American depositary shares of Luckin, worth roughly USD 390 mln as of market close yesterday. Cohen is one of the most successful hedge fund managers on Wall Street, known as founder of SAC Capital Advisors. However, Cohen is not the first Wall Street giant to bet on China’s Luckin Coffee. In April, BlackRock invested USD 150 mln in Luckin ahead of its IPO.
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Hedge Fund Investor Tarrant, Who Bet with Warren Buffett, Dies (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – Investor Jeffrey Tarrant, whose firm Protege Partners backed billionaire managers including William Ackman and Marc Lasry early in their careers and made a bet with Warren Buffett that hedge funds would outperform a passive index fund, has died at age 63. Tarrant died on Aug. 5 at his home in Bridgehampton, New York, his firm said, giving the cause of death as brain cancer.
Riches to Rags: Hedge Funds and Retailers Don’t Mix (The Wall Street Journal)
Barneys New York owner Richard Perry isn’t the only deep-pocketed money manager to watch over the decline of a storied retailer. Investors from Eddie Lampert – once lauded as the next Warren Buffett – to Bill Ackman have taken on clothing chains only to walk away with their wallets and reputations in tatters. The retailers’ fates might not have otherwise been any different, but the managers could have done without the experience.
Oil Producer QEP Ends Sale Process, Settles with Activist Elliott (Reuters)
(Reuters) – QEP Resources (QEP.N) will remain an independent oil and gas producer after ending a half-year process to sell itself without a deal, the company said on Wednesday, deciding instead to work with a rebuffed suitor to identify further cost savings. At the start of the year, Paul Singer’s $38 billion hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, which owns 4.9% of QEP, offered $2.07 billion for the Denver-based company, saying it was undervalued despite having good acreage in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale oilfield.
Private Equity Shop Preps Debt Hedge Fund (HFAlert.com)
Antarctica Capital, which runs a $2 billion private equity fund, is crafting a debt-focused hedge fund. The New York firm plans to launch the vehicle in the fourth quarter with $50 million to $100 million. Antarctica recently hired two veteran debt investors, and now is in the process of selecting a prime broker and other service providers. The fund would take an opportunistic approach to trading credit instruments, with an emphasis on structured products. Antarctica believes the vehicle would be well positioned to capitalize on market dislocations it expects to materialize in the coming years. In June, the firm hired Andrew Jarmolkiewicz as portfolio manager for the new fund. He previously spent nearly 10 years running WestCay Asset Management in the Bahamas, and earlier was a co-founder of London-based debt shop Cairn Capital.
Woodford and Invesco Hit as Burford Crashes on Short Attack (Citywire.co.uk)
Fund managers Neil Woodford and Mark Barnett have been hit by a short-selling attack on one of their biggest holdings, litigation financier Burford Capital (BURF). Shares in the Alternative Investment Market-listed stock, which counts Woodford Investment Management and Barnett’s employer Invesco as its two biggest backers, have crashed on the attack from US hedge fund Muddy Waters Research.
Feds Narrow Insider Trading Case Against Rep. Chris Collins (Law360.com)
Law360 (August 7, 2019, 11:27 AM EDT) — Manhattan federal prosecutors have dropped three insider trading charges against U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, narrowing the scope of a case that the congressman said ran afoul of constitutional protections. Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday dropped three counts of securities fraud against U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, shown here in June 2018, and omitted another two charges against his son. (Getty) In a superseding indictment on Tuesday, prosecutors dropped three counts of securities fraud against the New York Republican and omitted another two charges against his son Cameron. Both men still face multiple other counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Cars.com Inc (CARS) CEO and President Thomas Alex Vetter Bought $203,800 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO and President of Cars.com Inc, Thomas Alex Vetter, bought 20,000 shares of CARS on 08/07/2019 at an average price of $10.19 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $203,800. Cars.com Inc is an online destination for buying and selling of new and used vehicles. The company also operates Auto.com, DealerRater.com, NewCars.com and PickupTrucks.com, websites directed towards different consumer segments. Cars.com Inc has a market cap of $663.380 million; its shares were traded at around $9.95 with a P/E ratio of 27.65 and P/S ratio of 1.22. Cars.com Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 22.20% over the past five years.
Coinbase Escapes Lawsuit Over Insider Trading Allegations (Decrypt.co)
A District Judge has ruled that US exchange Coinbase did not act fraudulently when it launched controversial Bitcoin fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), onto its platform in December 2017. While the exchange initially investigated itself and—unsurprisingly—found no wrongdoing, this was not enough to satisfy angry traders. The class action lawsuit was brought by Jeffrey Berk in December, 2017, accusing Coinbase of insider trading when it suddenly launched Bitcoin Cash on its platform just a few months after stating it would not support the fork.
When Insider Trading Doesn’t Pay (CaixinGlobal.com)
An investor who used the stock accounts of acquaintances to buy shares in a listed company planning a major acquisition has been ordered to hand over his illegal profit of 197 million yuan ($28 million) and pay a fine of 197 million yuan for insider trading. The total penalty, amounting to 394 million yuan, is one of the largest ever imposed on an individual by the securities regulator. Yang Xuechu, who was identified as a 57-year-old man from Changsha, Hunan province, was investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) over his trading of shares in online games developer Shenzhen Zqgame Co. Ltd. back in 2013 when it was one of only a handful of such companies listed on the Growth Enterprise Market on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
A Director at Chemed Corporation (NYSE: CHE) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Chemed Corporation (CHE), George Walsh, bought shares of CHE for $206.4K. Following George Walsh’s last CHE Buy transaction on May 06, 2019, the stock climbed by 81.4%. This recent transaction increases George Walsh’s holding in the company by 6.44% to a total of $3.42 million.
Neogen Corp (NEOG) President & CEO John Edward Adent Sold $2.2 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President & CEO of Neogen Corp, John Edward Adent, sold 31,489 shares of NEOG on 08/05/2019 at an average price of $69.03 a share. The total sale was $2.2 million. Neogen Corp, through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures and markets a line of products dedicated to food and animal safety. Neogen Corp has a market cap of $3.64 billion; its shares were traded at around $69.63 with a P/E ratio of 60.56 and P/S ratio of 8.83. Neogen Corp had annual average EBITDA growth of 11.70% over the past ten years. GuruFocus rated Neogen Corp the business predictability rank of 4.5-star. GuruFocus has detected 2 severe warning signs with Neogen Corp.
