Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INFI), FairPoint Communications Inc (NASDAQ:FRP), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B)
Buffett Mocking Gold Sidesteps Slump As He Bets on Stocks (Bloomberg)
British hedge fund manager, William Browder, is a wanted man in Russia (The Independent)
Russian prosecutors have asked a court to issue an international arrest warrant for William Browder, the millionaire British hedge fund manager who has become a major thorn in the Kremlin’s side over his criticism and exposés of official corruption. Investigators in Moscow have charged Mr Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital Management, with tax evasion in a case which human rights groups have largely dismissed as political. His co-accused is Sergei Magnitsky, the whistleblowing lawyer who died in police custody.
Hedge Fund Joho Capital Buys Baidu, Micron Technology, Yelp, Sells Yum Brands, New Oriental Education, Facebook (Forbes)
Hedge fund Joho Capital was founded by Robert Karr. He is one of the Tiger Cubs, the hedge fund managers who learned from the legendary Julian Robertson. Robert Karr tends to hold very concentrated positions in the area of new technologies. His stock picks performed the best among our gurus, according to the Scoreboard of Gurus. Robert Karr buys Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL), sells Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) during the 3-months ended 03/31/2013, according to the most recent filings of his investment company, Joho Capital. As of 03/31/2013, Joho Capital owns 14 stocks with a total value of $902 million.
SEC hedge fund ad rule no closer to finalization (MarketWatch)
A Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that would relax decades-old rules that have kept hedge funds, private equity funds and small businesses from advertising when seeking to raise capital doesn’t appear to be close to finalization. That’s the take away from an exchange between Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina, and SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter Wednesday afternoon in a hearing of a House Financial Services subcommittee. The agency continues to be at loggerheads over how to allow public advertising by these firms in a way that would genuinely result in a significant hike in capital formation rather than drive a raft of fraud over the Internet.
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Among The 3 Highest-Yielding Stocks In this Fund (Insider Monkey)
Donald Yacktman, the President and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Yacktman Asset Management, is managing around $17 billion in total assets. Over the past ten years, his Yacktman Fund has achieved…
…an annualized gain of around 10.5%, while the more concentrated fund, the Yacktman Focused Fund, has been a bit better with an 11% annualized gain. In this article, we will take a closer look at the highest yielding stocks, which account for more than 4% of the Focused Fund. The top three stocks are SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).
As consumers wait to see how a new wave of telecom sector consolidation impacts carrier pricing plans for popular smartphones such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android devices, billionaire hedge fund investors such as John Paulson of Paulson & Co. appear poised to play an outsized role in the industry’s fate. Second-tier wireless providers such as Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), T-Mobile and MetroPCS Communications Inc (NYSE:PCS) are all currently engaged in merger efforts that, depending on shareholder votes, could reinvigorate the U.S. wireless industry so price-competitive players have a chance at winning back customers and profits from AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), who’ve consistently gained market share in the shift to smartphones.
Big Get Bigger in Annual Manager Ranking (Hedge Fund Alert)
Recent investment gains and greater use of leverage have added even more heft to the hedge fund industry’s biggest managers. The number of firms with at least $10 billion of gross fund assets reached 90 at yearend, up from 74 a year earlier, according to the latest update of Hedge Fund Alert’s Manager Database. And the number with $25 billion or more jumped to 32, from 20 at yearend 2011. This year’s ranking is led by Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, with $198.2 billion of gross assets — a measure that includes leverage. Bridgewater Associates, with $139.3 billion of gross assets in hedge funds, placed second, followed by Citadel ($107.6 billion), BTG Pactual Asset Management ($78.9 billion) and SAC Capital ($75.4 billion). Last year, the league table was topped by Citadel, followed by Millennium, Bridgewater, Pimco and SAC.
Crone’s Citrine Fund Hires Ex-Touradji’s DiCenso, Hommert (Businessweek)
Tony DiCenso and Andreas Hommert joined Citrine Capital Management LLC, a metals hedge-fund company, said founder and Chief Investment Officer Paul Crone. DiCenso joined New York-based Citrine as an analyst and trader and Hommert is an analyst, Crone said today in an interview in Lausanne, Switzerland. Both previously worked at Touradji Capital Management LP, he said. Crone started Citrine last year after seven years at Touradji, where he was head trader. Touradji managed $890 million at the end of 2011. Citrine uses exchange-listed derivatives to trade industrial metals, gold and platinum-group metals.
Greece Receives Two Bids for State Gambling Company OPAP (Wall Street Journal)
Greece received binding offers from a hedge fund and a private equity group for a 33% stake in state-controlled betting monopoly OPAP SA (OPAP.AT), the privatization agency said Wednesday, as it moved ahead with one of the country’s flagship asset sales this year. The two bids now go to the agency’s board of directors, who have yet to unseal the bids, and then they are expected to be reviewed by Greece’s Court of Auditors before a final winner is announced, a process that could take several weeks. But the deal, if it goes through, could fetch the government an estimated…
…800 million euros and, combined with the upcoming sale of Greece’s state-owned natural gas group, constitutes one of the jewels in the country’s much-delayed privatization program. The bids were submitted by Czech-led consortium Emma Delta and U.S. hedge fund Third Point, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, or HRADF, the privatization agency, said in a statement, without giving further details.
According to a 13G filed with the SEC, SAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund managed by billionaire Steve Cohen, owned 2.4 million shares of Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INFI), giving the fund 5% of the total shares outstanding of the $1.9 billion market cap biotechnology company. Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on drug development and placing its products in clinical trials, including for patients with arthritis and asthma. Looking at our database of filings, Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors, which focuses on healthcare investments, increased the size of its position in Infinity by 68% during the fourth quarter of 2012 to a total of 3.2 million shares. Perceptive Advisors, a biotechnology focused hedge funds managed by Joseph Edelman, cut its stake slightly but still closed December with 2.5 million shares in its portfolio.
Hedge Fund Pushes for Change at FairPoint Communications (SECFilings.com)
FairPoint Communications Inc (NASDAQ:FRP), a leading communications provider in northern New England, has undertaken initiatives over the past few months to improve its capital structure and operating performance by, among other things, cutting its workforce. But, at least one hedge fund isn’t satisfied quite yet, and outlined some changes it would like to see made. Maglan Capital LP noted in a recent Schedule 13D filing with the SEC that it was concerned that there’s a “serious discrepancy” between the issuer’s improving prospects and the current valuation of its common stock in the marketplace. In a letter sent on April 11th, the fund outlined these concerns to the board along with several suggestions to remedy the problem.
Barclay Hedge Fund Index gains 1.12 per cent in March (HedgeWeek)
Hedge funds gained 1.12 per cent in March, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The index is up 3.96 per cent year to date, and has enjoyed ten straight months of gains. “The mid-month announcement of a flawed Cyprus bailout plan unsettled global markets and sentiment shifted back to risk-off,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Interest rates moved lower and equity markets were muted with the notable exceptions of the US and Japan.
