Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group (check out Griffin’s favorite stocks) reported a position of 5.5 million shares in Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO), the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series among other video and PC game titles. This gives Citadel 6% of the outstanding shares. Take-Two is also notable as a stock that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has been buying recently (learn more about Icahn’s move back into Take-Two and find more stocks Icahn likes). The stock trades at five times forward earnings estimates, a discount to peers Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) and Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI); however, the company is likely to see a temporary earnings boost in that period from the release of the next Grand Theft Auto game and it is actually currently unprofitable.
Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) had SAC Capital Advisors- a hedge fund managed by billionaire Steve Cohen- report that it owned about 930,000 shares in a 13G filed with the SEC. Essentially all of these shares were bought in the fourth quarter of 2012. Higher chicken prices hurt Buffalo Wild Wings’ margins in the third quarter, and so net income was down; revenue was up, but that was mostly due to the opening of new locations. At a trailing P/E of 25, the stock trades fairly closely to hot restaurants such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). Buffalo Wild Wings was one of the most popular restaurant stocks among hedge funds in the third quarter.
A number of hedge funds are engaged in an activist campaign against SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD), but Prem Watsa, “the Warren Buffett of Canada” as he is called, is in management’s corner. His Fairfax Financial Holdings, which owned less than 5 million shares at the beginning of October according to its 13F filing, now owns about 30 million shares of the natural gas producer. 16% of the outstanding shares of SandRidge are held short, so there’s some dissatisfied traders other than the activists; in addition, the company is not expected to be profitable next year. Read more about SandRidge’s issues and research more stocks Fairfax owns.
Glenview Capital has added another million shares of Health Management Associates, Inc. (NYSE:HMA), a $2.4 billion market cap hospital operator (find more stocks Glenview has been buying). The fund is managed by Larry Robbins, who had previously worked at billionaire Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors. Health Management Associates trades at 16 times trailing earnings, which is high for the industry, but its forward P/E of 11 is more in line with the valuations of its peers as the market seems generally uncertain as to how healthcare regulations will affect hospitals and other healthcare businesses. Revenue was up strongly last quarter versus a year earlier, but net income was down slightly.
A 13G filing has disclosed that Ridgeback Capital, a healthcare focused hedge fund managed by Wayne Holman, has acquired a total of 3.8 million shares of Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX). This gives it over 6% of the $410 million market cap pharmaceutical company’s total shares outstanding. Ridgeback had reported owning 2.9 million shares of the stock at the beginning of October (see more of Holman’s stock picks). Celldex is expected to be unprofitable next year as well as this year, but optimism concerning the products it has in development have pushed the stock up 140% in the last year.
