Hedge Fund News: Carl Icahn, John Burbank, AT&T Inc. (T)

Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), UTStarcom Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UTSI), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP)

CVR Energy, Inc. (CVI), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX): Investing In Icahn’s Stock Picks, Best Way To Make Bank (Insider Monkey)
Billionaire Carl Icahn is best known for his activism within the investment industry. Just like Warren Buffett, Icahn’s opinions or investments decision are always in the news. According to Forbes, Icahn gained almost $2 billion from his stock investments. His performance is a clear demonstration that following his stock picks will be rewarding. Icahn described his strategy as Graham & Dodd investing with a kick. He generally invests in undervalued or mismanaged and pushes for changes to realize its appropriate shareholders value. Ken Squire, founder of 13D Monitor and 13D Activist Fund described Icahn as “incredibly smart” and his “ability to value a company is second to none.” The best way to make money with Icahn is to invest in his favorite stock because it has a great management. Of course, the company is none other than Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP).

Hedge Fund Manager Boosts Bid For Basketball Team (FINalternatives)
Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen has increased his offer for the Sacramento Kings, just days before National Basketball Association owners meet to decide the team’s fate. Hansen, who runs San Francisco-based Valiant Capital Management, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Chairman Steve Ballmer have added $17 million to their bid for 65% of the team, which they hope to move to Seattle. That would value the team at $550 million, up from $525 million, an NBA record.

$13 Billion Hedge Fund Edinburgh Partners’ Top Stock Picks (Seeking Alpha)
The largest position reported in the 13F of Hedge Fund Edinburgh Partners was 4.1 million shares of SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), though this represents a small sale of shares since the beginning of January. In its last quarterly report SanDisk experienced a 2% decline in revenue compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, and earnings decreased by 24%. Combined with good stock performance over the last year, this has brought SanDisk to a valuation of 34 times trailing earnings. Edinburgh disclosed ownership of about 270,000 shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as of the end of March. In the fourth quarter Google had been one of the most popular stocks among hedge funds and we’re looking forward to finding out where it stood last quarter.

Hedge fund manager is bullish on Midland (Star-Telegram.com)
When clients in Midland complained that they couldn’t find office space, hotel rooms or banquet halls, hedge fund co-founder Joseph Jacobs saw a big opportunity. It turned out to be 53 stories, potentially the tallest office building between Los Angeles and Dallas, and almost twice the height of anything in the onetime hometown of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. Jacobs, the president of Wexford Capital, with $5 billion in assets, views the $350 million Energy Tower office-hotel-condominium project as the centerpiece of the Permian Basin, the source of almost 60 percent of Texas’ oil last year.

Dan Loeb Simultaneously Solicits, Betrays Pension Funds (RollingStone.com)
But here’s the catch. Dan Loeb, who isn’t known as the biggest hedge-fund asshole still working on Wall Street (only because Stevie Cohen hasn’t been arrested yet), is on the board and co-founder of a group called Students First New York. And Students First has been one of the leading advocates pushing for states to abandon defined benefit plans – packages which guarantee certain retirement benefits for public workers like teachers – in favor of defined contribution plans, where the benefits are not guaranteed. In other words, Loeb has been soliciting the retirement money of…
…public workers, then turning right around and lobbying for those same workers to lose their benefits. He’s essentially asking workers to pay for their own disenfranchisement (with Loeb getting his two-and-twenty cut, or whatever obscene percentage of their retirement monies he will charge as a fee). If that isn’t the very definition of balls, I don’t know what is.

Sharp drop in gold caught many funds off guard: Burbank (Chicago Tribune)
Hedge fund manager John Burbank, a long-time investor in gold, said the recent sharp selloff in the precious metal came as a surprise to many investors as some economic improvement and a general decline in commodity prices took their toll. The San Francisco-based manager called last week’s dramatic decline an “unexpected event” that caught some hedge funds off guard because they were betting that inflation would rise at a time global central banks are sticking to easy monetary policy. His own fund, $3.7 billion Passport Capital, however was hedged by owning physical gold and betting against gold mining companies, whose share prices have dropped dramatically, he said.

Hedge fund manager pleads guilty to Ponzi scheme (Businessweek)
A Portland hedge-fund manager pleaded guilty Tuesday to 17 counts of mail and wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme he orchestrated in Oregon, Washington and other states. Yusaf Jawed, 44, is scheduled to be sentenced June 21. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors and the defense will recommend 6 1/2 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Allan Garten said.

Short Hills hedge fund manager Tepper made $2.2 billion last year: report (NJ.com)
According to a report by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, the Short Hills-based hedge fund magnate racked up a cool $2.2 billion last year. For himself. It was enough to put Tepper, who runs Appaloosa Management, at the top of Alpha’s annual ranking of hedge fund managers’ paydays. Whether that makes a difference to Tepper was hard to tell. Answering his phone today with a casual but disarming “hey,” he declined to comment. Altogether, the top-25 hedge fund managers took home just over $14.1 billion, the lowest sum since 2008, according to Alpha. Number two on the list was Ray Dalio, head of Connecticut-based Bridgewater Associates, who netted $1.7 billion.

Hedge Fund Manager Ueda Sues Ex-Partner Yashwant Bajaj (Bloomberg)
Toru Ueda, co-founder of hedge-fund firm Hachiman Capital Management, sued his former partner Yashwant Bajaj, claiming he was shortchanged after the two decided to shut the company. Bajaj transferred $458,965 from Hachiman to his Juggernaut Capital Management Pte without Ueda’s consent, according to Ueda’s lawsuit filed at the Singapore High Court last month. Bajaj also incurred a trading loss of $247,197, which wasn’t accounted for, Ueda said in his complaint.

Bond Hedge Fund 5:15 Capital to Close Down, Return Money (Bloomberg)
Bond hedge-fund manager 5:15 Capital Management LLC, named after a song by The Who, will wind down and return client money after redemptions, according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg. The firm, which invests in government bonds, will shut by…
…the end of the month after redemptions “driven by sector rotation” and “weakness in the fund-of-fund industry,” E.G. Fisher and Rob Wahl, co-founders of the Greenwich, Connecticut- based firm, wrote in the letter that was sent today to clients. Assets in the firm’s core strategy fell from a peak of $1 billion in early 2012 to $370 million as of April 1, they said.

AT&T Inc. (T), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) & Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): Hedge Fund Manager Cliff Asness’s +3.5% Yielders(Insider Monkey)
Read on for our quick take on five of Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management’s picks as of the end of December which pay yields of 3.5% or higher going by current prices and recent dividend levels. One of AQR’s five largest positions by market value was its 5.3 million shares of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). The telecommunications company pays a high dividend yield of 4.7%, and also stands out for a low beta of 0.4. Asness and his team kept their holdings of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) roughly constant, with 3.1 million shares in their portfolio as of the end of March.

Chinese firm states it will evaluate offer from Raleigh hedge fund manager (Triangle Business Journal)
Beijing-based UTStarcom Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UTSI) says it has set up a special committee of its board of directors and hired a New York law firm to help it evaluate an investor offer led by Raleigh-based Shah Capital that would take the tech supplier private. The law firm is New York-based Kirkland & Ellis, a practice specializing in global transactions. Shah Capital, founded by investment advisor Himanshu H. Shah in 2005, and other investors have offered $3.20 a share to acquire all the outdstanding UTStarcom shares not already in their hands.

Hedge fund post fifth positive consecutive month, Eurekahedge (Investment Europe)
Hedge funds were up for the fifth consecutive month in March, a month that saw mixed returns in underlying market indices, according to Eurekahedge. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up 0.69% during the month while the MSCI World Index finished with gains of 1.76%. March witnessed diverging trends among global markets with US and European indices finishing with contrasting results. North America witnessed a continuation of the rally in equity markets amid a slew of positive economic data, while Japanese stocks also extended their winning run with further devaluation of the yen.