Back in 2003, Kevin Michael Ulrich and Anthony Davis, two former employees of Goldman Sachs, founded their hedge fund, Anchorage Capital Advisors. The fund currently has over $15 billion in Assets Under Management, in comparison to around $12 billion held at the end of last year. It is a long/short fund, which invests mainly in credit and special situations, and also holds investments in bank debts.
Anchorage has also recently revealed its equity portfolio as of the end of the first quarter of the year. According to the filing with the Securities, the total value of the equity portfolio amounted to $2.66 billion at the end of March, slightly above $2.59 billion in the previous quarter. Overall, the fund added more than 20 new positions and closed 16 of its previous holdings. In this piece, we will take a look at five companies in which Anchorage owns its most expensive holdings.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (NASDAQ:HMHC) stands on the first position, Anchorage revealing a $434.86 million stake, which amasses 21.39 million shares, the position remaining unchanged over the quarter. During the first quarter, the stock of the $2.5 billion company gained almost 20%. Even though Anchorage holds a massive position in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (NASDAQ:HMHC), John Paulson‘s stake is more significant and amasses 30.91 million shares, worth $628.45 million. At the same time, Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group sold out its position in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. (NASDAQ:HMHC), which previously amassed 225,300 shares, the stake being initiated during the last quarter of 2013, when the company went public.
Kevin Michael Ulrich of Anchorage Advisors
Anchorage sold some 1.39 million shares of Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF) during the first three months of the year, and revealed ownership of 8.07 million shares, reportedly worth $163.06 million. Central Pacific Financial Corp is a bank holding company for its Central Pacific Bank. The stock of the company edged down by 6% since the beginning of the year, and trails a P/E of around 18.00, which is slightly below the average among banks from the Pacific region. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies is another shareholder of Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF), holding 339,300 shares as of the end of March.
The third largest holding is represented by Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG), of which Mr. Ulrich’s fund revealed holding more than 2.55 million shares, valued at $141.31 million, the stake being increased by 13% on the quarter. The stock of the liquid natural gas company surged by almost 37% since the beginning of the year, outperforming the oil & gas equipment and services industry return of around 11%. Michael Lowenstein‘s Kensico Capital is another hedge fund that owns shares of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG), reporting a $447.31 million stake, which contains 8.08 million shares as of the end of March.
Next on the list comes a $1.3 billion residential and commercial building products company, Nortek Inc (NASDAQ:NTK), of which Anchorage reported holding 1.49 million shares, up by 125,000 shares on the quarter, the total value of the stake amounting to $122.72 million. The company posted a revenue worth $550 million for the first three months of the year, and an EBITDA of $26 million. Moreover, Nortek Inc (NASDAQ:NTK)’s EPS amounted to -$0.55, slightly higher than -$0.58 in the previous quarter. For the full year, the company is expected to report earnings of around $1.60 per share.
And we conclude our compilation of Anchorage’s top equity positions with DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH), in which the fund revealed a $110.86 million stake. The fund has trimmed its exposure to DISH by approximately 14% to 1.78 million shares. The $26.6 billion provider of pay-television, managed to beat the estimates in terms of earnings per share for the past couple of years, reporting $2.50 per share for the last two years. The aforementioned Citadel is bullish on DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH), raising its stake by 1.71 million shares to 4.36 million, worth $271.23 million as of the end of the first quarter.
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