Christian Leone started Luxor Capital Group in 2002 and has grown it into a financial powerhouse with more than $8 billion in assets under management as of August 2016. Leone and his team employ a value oriented investment approach, focusing on equity and fixed income markets across the globe. According to its latest 13F report, Luxor Capital managed an equity portfolio valued at $3.55 billion at the end of September. The fund has great exposure to the financial sector, with financial stocks accounting for 68% of its equity portfolio’s value.
After a shaky start to 2016, Luxor Capital managed to turn things around, having ended the third quarter on a high note. According to Insider Monkey’s performance measurements, the fund’s equity picks registered a positive return of 14.89% in the third quarter, placing it among the best performing funds in our database. It is important to note that take into account only investments in public equities that have a market cap greater than or equal to $1 billion. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the fund’s largest bets and how Christian Leone played them during the quarter.
First up is BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), a stock that Luxor Capital has been holding since the beginning of 2014. At the end of the most recent quarter, the fund’s stake in the company was reduced by 3% to 2.41 million shares valued at $85.8 million according to its latest 13F filing. The stock plunged by roughly 18.9% during the third quarter.
Now, we’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI). At the end of the second quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a drop of 5% from the previous quarter. More specifically, Luxor Capital Group was the largest shareholder of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) at the end of June, followed by Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, which amassed a stake valued at $23.5 million. Balyasny Asset Management, Millennium Management, and Marshall Wace LLP also held valuable positions in the company.
Follow Bjs Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:BJRI)
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Next up is DHX Media Ltd (USA) (NASDAQ:DHXM), a producer and distributor of kids and family television and film productions. Luxor Capital cut its position in the stock by 15% during the third quarter to some 10.2 million shares worth approximately $53.5 million. The stock returned a meager 0.6% during the third quarter.
During the second quarter, the number of funds betting on this stock remained unchanged from the first quarter, with 7 of the funds followed by Insider Monkey having reported holding a long position as of the end of June. According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Luxor Capital Group held the biggest position in DHX Media Ltd (USA) (NASDAQ:DHXM) at the end of the second quarter. Sitting at the No. 2 spot was Debra Fine of Fine Capital Partners, with a $27.4 million position; the fund had 3.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that were bullish include Jonathan Lennon’s Pleasant Lake Partners, Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management, and Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s Becker Drapkin Management.
We’ll check out two more of the fund’s stock picks on the next page.
