Roberto Mignone’s New Stock Picks

When Roberto Mignone graduated from Harvard Business School, he joined John Griffin at Blue Ridge Capital. Right before his 29th birthday in July 2000, he launched Bridger Management, which now manages about $2 Billion. He charges a 1.5 percent management fee and 20 percent incentive fee. He believes fund size is a drag on the performance of a long/short fund manager, so he has no desire to run a much bigger fund than what he is currently running. Roberto Mignone’s Bridger Management keeps their returns extremely secret. They do extensive analysis and follow a long/short strategy. Katherine Burton profiled Roberto Mignone in her book “Hedge Hunters”. She explains Mignone’s strategy as follows:

“Mignone’s core positions include roughly thirty long positions, which are each limited to 5 percent of the portfolio initially and never get larger than 10 percent. He has about sixty core short positions, each no bigger than 2 percent at the start. He never allows them to grow bigger than 4 percent. Overall, the gross exposure is 150 to 200 percent, meaning the value of the long and short positions adds up to 1.5 to 2 times the net assets in the fund. The net exposure is between 20 and 60 percent.”

Mignone initiated positions in 14 stocks in the second quarter. He now has $70 M in Las Vegas Sands (LVS), about $64 Million in Arcos Dorados (ARCO), $64 Million in Forest Labs (FRX), $61 Million in Starwood Hotels (HOT), about $50 Million each in Google put options and call options (GOOG), about $20 Million in Centene Corp (CNC), about $13 Million in Given Imaging (GIVN), about $11 Million in Anthera Pharmaceuticals (ANTH), $6 Million in Baidu (BIDU), about $6 Million in Research in Motion calls (RIMM), $4.5 Million in Sina Corp (SINA), $3.3 Million in iSoftStone Holdings (ISS), and $2.5 Million in Corcept Therape (CORT).