Steve Cohen Outed as Mystery Buyer of $91 Million Koons Bunny (Bloomberg)
Steve Cohen was unmasked by Artnet as the mystery buyer of a Jeff Koons rabbit sculpture last week in New York for $91 million, a record for a living artist at auction. The hedge fund billionaire was outed Tuesday by the online art publication, which didn’t say how it got the information. Cohen, 62, had denied purchasing the work at Christie’s postwar and contemporary art evening auction last week.
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Hedge Fund Performance Update: April 2019 (Preqin)
We provide an in-depth look at the hedge fund performance benchmarks for April 2019, comparing them to March 2019 and revealing the 2019 YTD and 12-month return figures across top-level strategies, structures, denominations and size classifications. All posted positive returns in April, highlighting the strong industry-wide performance. With no returns lower than +0.23% for the month, hedge funds are looking extremely healthy as we approach H2 2019 – will this positive trend continue?
Legg Mason Stock Jumps as Trian’s Nelson Peltz Joins the Board (Barron’s)
Legg Mason’s stock (LM) is getting a boost from Trian Partners. Shares rose nearly 3% on Tuesday following an announcement that the hedge fund’s chief and founding partner Nelson Peltz would join the Legg Mason board of directors. Trian reached an agreement Monday night with the $770 billion money manager.The Wall Street Journal had reported last week that the two sides were in talks. Trian Partners holds a 4.5% stake in Legg Mason. Trian’s chief investment officer Ed Garden also joined the board and Trian will identify…
Bain Capital Credit goes live with Hazeltree Collateral Manager (HedgeWeek.com)
Bain Capital Credit has implemented Hazeltree Collateral Manager to streamline collateral management across ISDA counterparties. A major driver for Bain Capital Credit’s evaluation and selection of Hazeltree Collateral Manager is the upcoming Uncleared Margin (UMR) and Standard Initial Margin Model (SIMM), which are coming sharply into focus for end-users on non-centrally cleared derivatives. Hazeltree Collateral Manager enables Bain Capital Credit to: streamline, aggregate and centralise its OTC collateral management activities; compare and reconcile internal, independently-calculated OTC collateral call estimates against each counterparty’s calls; and, seamlessly respond to, issue, or dispute daily margin calls via all eligible cash and non-cash assets.
Tradeweb Just Hired a Former Senior Technologist at Citadel for a New Role that Signals Fixed Income’s Increasing Focus on Trade Data (Business Insider)
Tradeweb, which runs electronic markets in bonds, derivatives and ETFs, created a new role focused on building technology to help it better manage its trade data. Caius Howcroft, who most recently served as Citadel‘s head of platform technology, was named head of data and platform architecture at Tradeweb last week. Howcroft’s responsibilities will include helping the markets operator improve its use of cloud computing.
Investors Shift $14bn to Event Driven, Asia and Emerging Markets Hedge Funds (Opalesque.com)
Investors redeemed an estimated $1.36bn from hedge funds in April 2019, bringing YTD flows to a negative $18.15bn, according to eVestment’s April 2019 Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report. Meanwhile, strong hedge fund performance was additive to industry assets in April, putting overall industry assets at $3.288tn, the report said. On the positive side, investors around the world have been demonstrating strong appetite for Event Driven, Asia and Emerging Markets hedge funds, moving almost $14bn year-to-date (YTD) into these funds.
George Soros Made 8 Predictions About Politics, Financial Markets, and Facebook – Here’s How They Turned Out (Business Insider)
The billionaire investor George Soros is not shy about making predictions, in financial markets or otherwise. Soros is an investor of almost mythical status, having accumulated a fortune of nearly $40 billion from trading across currency, equity, and fixed-income markets. He started the Quantum Fund in 1973 before returning all outside capital in 2011 to focus solely on managing his own money.
‘Toxic Cocktail’ Brewing for U.S. Asset Managers: Hedge Fund Investor Kass (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Hedge fund investor Doug Kass said on Tuesday that he is shorting several investment managers, including T. Rowe Price Group Inc and Franklin Resources Inc, as they could be “the next group to feel disruption” and may be headed for large share price falls. Kass, who runs Seabreeze Partners Management, said in a note to clients that he does not believe investors are aware of how commoditized the money management business has become. “As an example, a year ago, a boutique fund manager, Salt Financial, began to pay clients five basis points a year to manage their money!” Kass wrote.
Edgewell Personal Care Co (EPC) CEO Rod R Little Bought $297,600 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Edgewell Personal Care Co (NYSE:EPC) Rod R Little bought 9,300 shares of EPC on 05/21/2019 at an average price of $32 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $297,600. Edgewell Personal Care Co is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. It has a portfolio of over 25 brands and a broad global footprint in more than 50 countries. Edgewell Personal Care Co has a market cap of $1.75 billion; its shares were traded at around $32.25 with a P/E ratio of 22.09 and P/S ratio of 0.81.
UBS Insider Case Indictee Says Biggest Trade Was $18 Million (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — An investor charged with trading on tips allegedly leaked by a former UBS Group AG compliance officer said the trades he was indicted over were far smaller than others he carried out in the same period. In his first day of giving evidence in his trial, Walid Choucair said he usually kept $10 million in his trading account and aimed to make returns of about 20% on his transactions. The 1,000 trades he made on 99 companies over a period of 18 to 20 months in 2013 and 2014 included a $2.6 million profit on Pharmacyclics Inc. and a $2.4 million loss on Rackspace Hosting Inc., the 40-year-old said Tuesday in a London court.
Tuesday 5/21 Insider Buying Report: APLT, RESI (Nasdaq.com)
On Thursday, Applied Therapeutics (APLT)’s Director, Joel S. Marcus, made a $1.5M buy of APLT, purchasing 150,000 shares at a cost of $10.00 a piece. Applied Therapeutics is trading up about 0.2% on the day Tuesday. This buy marks the first one filed by Marcus in the past year. And at Front Yard Residential Corp (RESI), there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Rochelle R. Dobbs who bought 25,000 shares for a cost of $10.87 each, for a trade totaling $271,700. Front Yard Residential Corp is trading up about 6.9% on the day Tuesday. So far Dobbs is in the green, up about 8.8% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $11.82.
The EVP, General Counsel and CRO of Torchmark (NYSE: TMK) is Selling Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, the EVP, General Counsel and CRO of Torchmark (TMK), Robert Brian Mitchell, sold shares of TMK for $659.2K. In addition to Robert Brian Mitchell, 17 other TMK executives reported Sell trades in the last month. Following Robert Brian Mitchell’s last TMK Sell transaction on March 12, 2019, the stock climbed by 6.1%.
American Express Co (AXP) Chairman and CEO Stephen J Squeri Sold $12.2 million of Shares (GuruFocus)
Chairman and CEO of American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) Stephen J Squeri sold 101,964 shares of AXP on 05/20/2019 at an average price of $119.95 a share. The total sale was $12.2 million. American Express Co is a payments, network and travel company. It provides charge and credit card products, travel services, network services, stored value products, loans, and other products and services to businesses and individuals. American Express Co has a market cap of $100.49 billion; its shares were traded at around $120.33 with a P/E ratio of 15.35 and P/S ratio of 3.51. The dividend yield of American Express Co stocks is 1.27%.
