Hedge Funds Fall into the Red as Volatility and Variants Halt Nine-Month Rise (Hedge Week)
Hedge funds’ nine-month consecutive run of positive returns has been halted, with managers ending last month in the red as market volatility and renewed uncertainty over the impact of coronavirus variants. Hedge Fund Research’s main industry-wide benchmark, the HFR Fund Weighted Composite Index – which tracks the monthly returns of some 1400 single manager hedge funds across all strategy types – lost 0.60 per cent in July, its first down month since September 2020. The dent means hedge funds have now returned 9.45 per cent gain since the start of 2021. Before last month, the industry’s January-to-June advance – a rise of some 10 per cent – had been its best first-half performance since 1999, according to HFR data.
Hedge Fund Manager Keith Meister Says It’s ‘Hard to be Bearish’ on Stocks. Here’s How He’s Investing (CNBC)
Keith Meister, a hedge fund manager and protégé of Carl Icahn, told CNBC on Friday he remains optimistic about stocks even as the S&P 500 hovers near record levels.
US Hedge Fund Swoops on SSE: Energy Giant May be Set for £20bn Takeover as Corporate Raider Elliott Management Builds Up Stake (This Is Money)
The world’s most powerful activist investor has secretly built a stake in energy giant SSE in a move that could lead to a £20billion takeover bid for the FTSE100-listed company. City sources said Elliott Management, which has been dubbed a ‘corporate raider’ for buying shares and forcing change at large companies, has recently bought a large shareholding in SSE which supplies around five million Britons with energy to their homes. It’s not clear how large Elliott’s shareholding in SSE is and why it has taken the position in the London-listed group.
Last Week’s Notable Insider Buys: Magnolia Oil & Gas, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Benzinga)
Colfax: A director added some Colfax Corp (CFX) shares after the industrial company posted better than expected earnings. Some 250,000 shares were purchased last week at prices ranging from $45.67 to $47.01 apiece. That cost that director more than $11.54 million. Note that the director also picked up 200 shares via trust for the benefit of that director’s child. Vertex Pharmaceuticals: Early last week, a co-lead independent director at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) added to a stake after a better than expected earnings report. At $197.45 to $198.12 apiece, the 15,000 shares purchased cost that director almost $2.97 million, and they increased the director’s stake to more than 41,200 shares.
Monday 8/9 Insider Buying Report: CFX, WWD (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Colfax’s Director, Mitchell P. Rales, made a $11.56M buy of CFX, purchasing 250,200 shares at a cost of $46.19 a piece. Rales was up about 3.9% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with CFX trading as high as $47.98 at last check today. Colfax is trading off about 0.8% on the day Monday. This purchase marks the first one filed by Rales in the past year. And also on Wednesday, Director David P. Hess bought $500,588 worth of Woodward, buying 4,400 shares at a cost of $113.77 a piece. Woodward is trading down about 2.6% on the day Monday. Investors are able to bag WWD at a price even lower than Hess did, with shares changing hands as low as $110.62 at last check today which is 2.8% under Hess’s purchase price.
The CEO of Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the CEO of Global Payments (GPN), Jeffrey Steven Sloan, bought shares of GPN for $500.4K. This is Sloan’s first Buy trade following 3 Sell transactions. In addition to Jeffrey Steven Sloan, one other GPN executive reported Buy trades in the last month. Based on Global Payments’ latest earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $2.14 billion and quarterly net profit of $264 million.
