Boone Pickens Says Natural Gas Heading Higher, Likes National Oilwell Varco & Pioneer Natural Resources

We're posting up notes from the Great Investors' Best Ideas Investment Symposium in Dallas and next up is Boone Pickens of BP Capital Management.  The legendary energy man focused on, you guessed it, energy.

Pickens started his presentation talking about how the oil industry has changed over the past 10 years and how he thinks we can rebuild the economy off of cheap energy.  In politics, he thinks Romney will win the election and says he has the first true US energy plan (though it's not complete and he'd like to see more natural gas used).


Pickens on Natural Gas

One of the bolder calls of the conference was made when T. Boone argued that natural gas prices would rise to $4.50 or $5 in the next year and could see $6 by 2015.


Pickens' Stock Picks

At GIBI, Pickens recommended two stocks.  His first pick was National Oilwell Varco (NOV).  It currently trades at just under $74 and he thinks it will see $100.  He points to the company's huge shale opportunity for development and that there's still support for oil domestically and internationally.

His second pick was Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), which he likes due to their great assets, pointing to 900,000 acres (of which he specifically mentioned the Permian basin assets).  He says they'll be drilling for a while.  The stock currently trades at just under $106 and he thinks it sees $150.


For the rest of the presentations, head to notes from the Great Investors' Best Ideas conference.

Boone Pickens' BP Capital: Transocean (RIG) Still Top Holding (13F Filing)

This is the second quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.

Next up is T. Boone Pickens' hedge fund, BP Capital Management. He runs an energy-centric set of funds out of Dallas, Texas and is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory. On the positive side of things, he has landed himself on Forbes' billionaire list. Yet on the negative side of things, he also graced the list of top hedge fund manager losers of 2008.

To say Boone had a rough 2008 would be putting it lightly. His energy fund was down 98% and his equities fund down 64% in a year to forget for the energy maverick. That said, BP returned 300% in 2005 and so it looks like you better have a strong stomach to survive the volatility here. We say this of course because we got word that Boone was seeking investors for hedge funds back in July. He started trading the new portfolios back in February and was up 79% already.

We'll be watching Boone's funds closely now that he's been personally hurt by them so much. He obviously doesn't want to blow up (again). In our recent hedge fund news summary, we also saw that Boone was scaling back his wind energy projects too. Looks like tough times all around for our favorite resident energy maverick. At 20%, he is the largest investor in his funds and will live and die by them. And for that, we cannot criticize him. We love to see managers with a lot of 'skin in the game.'

The following were BP Capital's long equity, note, and options holdings as of June 30th, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Forest Oil (FST)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Questar (STR): Increased by 40%
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG): Increased by 37.5%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of)
Transocean (RIG): Reduced by 27.8%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR)
Consol Energy (CNX)
Massey Energy (MEE)
Halliburton (HAL)
Schlumberger (SLB)
Foster Wheeler (FWLT)
Fluor (FLR)
Weatherford (WFT)
McMoran Exploration (MMR)


All of their long holdings by percentage of assets reported on the 13F filing *(see note below regarding calculations)

1. Transocean (RIG): 28.23%
2. Devon Energy (DVN): 15.93%
3. Occidental Petroleum (OXY): 15.39%
4. Suncor Energy (SU): 10.64%
5. Cabot Oil & Gas (COG): 9.85%
6. Questar (STR): 8.13%
7. Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 4.64%
8. Forest Oil (FST): 4.54%
9. Anadarko Petroleum (APC): 2.65%
   

Boone Pickens has had a rough patch here over the past year, but we'll continue to check in on this energy maverick to see what he's up to. As you can see, he has quite a concentrated portfolio full of energy names with Transocean (RIG) as his top position by a wide margin even after he sold off almost a third of his stake. If you go back before his funds 'blew up,' you'll see that Boone held many of these exact energy names and has favored them over the longer-term. He is obviously a big bull on crude oil and natural gas long-term and has positioned his equity portfolio as such.

He started a brand new position in Forest Oil (FST) with 260,000 shares and then he boosted his Cabot stake by 37.5% and boosted his Questar position by 40%. In terms of partial sales, he only sold off some RIG and that's it. However, in terms of full sales, he sold completely out of a bevy of names listed above in the 'removed' paragraph. Other than that, the rest of his positions were flat on a quarter by quarter basis as he left them unchanged.

*Note regarding portfolio percentages: Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $85 million this quarter compared to $93 million last quarter. Please keep in mind that when we state "percentage of portfolio," we are referring to the percentage of assets reported on the 13F filing. Since these filings only report longs (and not shorts or cash positions), the percentages are skewed. In reality, the percentages are more watered down in their actual hedge fund portfolio. If you were to calculate percentage weightings in the actual hedge fund portfolio, they would obviously be different since you would divide position sizes by their total assets under management.

This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our Q2 2009 hedge fund portfolio series. So far, we've already covered the holdings of Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC, and Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros (Soros Fund Management), Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, David Stemerman's Conatus Capital, Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, and Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital. Check back each day as we cover prominent hedge fund portfolios.

Boone Pickens Seeks Investors For Hedge Funds

Well, here we go again. After his energy fund lost 98% and his equities fund lost 64% in 2008, Boone Pickens is back for more. Yep, he is raising money for new iterations of essentially the same hedge funds that his hedge fund BP Capital previously ran. Well, we don't even really need to say "essentially" because they literally are the same funds just with a "II" at the end of the name, signaling their second incarnation.

His Energy fund will trade futures and his Equities fund will trade energy related equities and some futures as well. His "II" Energy Fund started trading back in February and is already up a whopping 79%. It's funny how they are undoubtedly using that as marketing material and you can't blame them. However, investors should be aware that the exact same types of funds were obliterated last year. So, a 79% gain this year is not much when you consider how much they were down the year prior. According to fund documents, Pickens will aim to hold investments between 3 months and two years. If you're curious as to what his firm owns, we've covered Pickens' hedge fund portfolio recently here.

As our friend TraderMark over at FundMyMutualFund.com so poignantly asked, is Boone turning into the next John Meriwether? For those unaware, Pickens had an absolutely brutal last year as his funds lost money, he personally lost money, and every bet he made seemed to go against him. John Meriwether, on the other hand, blew up Long Term Capital Management back in the day and we just recently got word that he is closing yet another hedge fund down. We like to call it the hedge fund boom-bust cycle. Manager starts hedge fund, goes boom to the top of the charts, then goes bust. They then re-group, raise more money, and then start over again. Rinse and repeat. And, repeat again. You get the picture.

So, we like to poke fun at both the fund managers themselves for their propensity to 'blow up' and come right back from the dead with a new fund offering. At the same time, we like to poke even more fun at the investors who continually come back for more. Such is life in hedge fund land. Speaking of 'pokes, we know one institution who will be watching him carefully: The Cowboys of Oklahoma State University. Boone's alma mater certainly loves all of his donations as he has helped revamp the athletics program there. But, after last year, you know they'll be eagerly watching.

It will be interesting to follow Boone's funds now that he's been personally hurt by them so much. You know he certainly doesn't want to blow up again. Additionally, in our recent hedge fund news summary, we also saw that Boone was scaling back his wind energy projects too. So, tough times all around for ole T. Boone. In the end, he will live and die by his funds, as he is their largest investor, at 20%. And for that, we cannot criticize him. We love to see managers with a lot of 'skin in the game.'

Boone Pickens' Hedge Fund BP Capital: Licking Wounds (13F Filing Q1 2009)

This is the 1st Quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings series preface.

Next up, we have BP Capital. With all the commotion surrounding energy these days, it never hurts to track an energy focused hedge fund ran by none other than Boone Pickens. If you are unfamiliar with Pickens, he is an energy maverick and his fund returned 300% in 2005. He is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory and runs an energy-centric hedge fund based in Dallas, Texas. Although he typically holds numerous positions in oil, he is also big on alternative energy (except ethanol).

We haven't covered Boone in our last few portfolio tracking series because his fund had been facing major problems and moved pretty much to cash. In fact, he was one of the top hedge fund losers of 2008. His energy/commodity fund was down around 60-80% at various times as he continually mistepped in the oil markets. Back in October, we noted that Boone was seeing massive investor redemption requests. This came after our report in September of last year noting that his funds were down huge for that year. Needless to say, 2009 will be a rebuilding year for Boone and his BP Capital Management.

Amazingly, Boone did still manage to land himself on Forbes' billionaire list though. To see what BP's portfolio would normally look like when fully invested, then check out their past holdings here. Over the course of last year, he advocated a large natural gas position and additionally made a big bet on wind energy as America's future. Outside of investing in it, he also has been a big proponent for energy change as America looks for new alternatives. He's pushing for energy independence with his Pickens Plan which initially picked up a lot of steam around the Presidential election, but has slowly tapered off and we haven't heard a whole lot from it recently. In terms of more recent energy prophecies, Boone has said he could see oil settling around $75 in the intermediate-term as the economy tries to recover.

The following were BP's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Transocean (RIG)
Cabot Oil & Gas (COG)
Questar (STR)
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR)
Consol Energy (CNX)
Massey Energy (MEE)
Halliburton (HAL)
Schlumberger (SLB)
Foster Wheeler (FWLT)
Fluor (FLR)
Anadarko (APC)
Weatherford (WFT)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Suncor (SU): Increased by 200%
Occidental (OXY): Increased by 100%
Chesapeake Energy (CHK): Increased by 100%
Devon (DVN): Increased by 67%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
n/a


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Peabody (BTU)
Denbury Resources (DNR)


All Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Transocean (RIG): 28.2% of portfolio
2. Devon Energy (DVN): 11.9% of portfolio
3. Occidental Petroleum (OXY): 11.85% of portfolio
4. Suncor Energy (SU): 7.1% of portfolio
5. Cabot Oil & Gas (COG): 5% of portfolio
6. Questar (STR): 5% of portfolio
7. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR): 4.4% of portfolio
8. Consol Energy (CNX): 4% of portfolio
9. Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 3.6% of portfolio
10. Massey Energy (MEE): 3.5% of portfolio
11. Halliburton (HAL): 3.3% of portfolio
12. Schlumberger (SLB): 3.2% of portfolio
13. Foster Wheeler (FWLT): 2.5% of portfolio
14. Fluor (FLR): 2.2% of portfolio
15. Anadarko Petroleum (APC): 2.1% of portfolio
16. Weatherford (WFT): 1.2% of portfolio
17. McMoran Exploration (MMR): 1% of portfolio

Pickens holds his typical plays, as his portfolio really hasn't changed. The equity holdings above were pretty much the same ones he held before facing massive redemptions at his hedge fund. So, even though there a bunch of names listed under the 'new' category, they aren't really new holdings. They are, for the most part, the same plays that he had before his liquidity crunch.

Keep in mind too that Pickens' portfolio is pretty small these days. Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were a little over $93 million this quarter compared to $40 million last quarter. He's definitely started to put some money back to work, but it is nowhere near the asset levels he used to have (around $2 billion). As we said before, it will be a re-building year and we've started tracking him again because, let's face it, he'll be back. Investors always flock back to fallen fund managers and we really have no clue why. If anything, we can at least chronicle any shenanigans that might ensue. This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our hedge fund Q1 2009 portfolio series. Check back each day as we cover new fund portfolios. We've already covered Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, and David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon Group, Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway), and Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital Group.

Gap Between Tangible Common Equity and Tier 1 Capital

Since yesterday we took a glance at tangible book/asset ratios, we'll today take a glance at tangible common equity and tier 1 capital ratios courtesy of Paul Kedrosky. Keep in mind, obviously, that you need to take all of these ratios that we've been throwing at you with a grain of salt. (Taking things with a grain of salt seems to be the theme this week, slash this entire crisis). Because, of course, a few ratios here and there are not even close to being able to sum up a financial institution's situation. Note that tangible common equity is typically the more 'stringent' of the two measurements.

(click to enlarge)

Boone Pickens' BP Capital Investors Withdraw Money

In what seems like an endless cycle of hedge fund withdrawals and redemptions, it should come as no surprise that investors in Boone Pickens' BP Capital hedge funds are seeking their money back. Let the redemption bloodbath begin. And, it seems as if BP Capital is partly responsible for the massive sell-off in energy equities.

We first got word of Boone's poor performance towards the end of September, when we noted that his equities fund was -30% through august, and his commodities fund was -84% through the same period. In his recent appearance on "60 Minutes," Boone noted that he and his firm had lost around $2 billion since the peak in June. And, in a recent WSJ article, they note that nearly 50% of investors are withdrawing their money from the fund, which has seen losses of nearly 60% now. They also note that Boone moved nearly everything into cash a few weeks ago, to protect from further downside risk.

So, its clear that Boone was one (of I'm sure many) hedge funds who were selling off entire positions over the past few weeks. As we detailed in our most recent look at BP's portfolio holdings, Boone runs an energy-centric equities fund. So, some of his holdings such as Transocean (RIG), Suncor (SU), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Schlumberger (SLB), Halliburton (HAL), Chesapeake (CHK), and many more listed here have undoubtedly seen selling over the past few weeks due to Boone moving to cash. Obviously Boone wasn't solely responsible for the drop-off, but it looks like he was definitely one of the culprits. We won't know for sure which, if any, of his positions he is still holding until the next 13F filing is released in the coming weeks. But, it sounds as if he has hardly any positions right now as he prepares to meet investor redemptions/withdrawals.

The cycle of hedge fund redemptions/withdrawals undoubtedly will provide ample opportunities, which I recently detailed here. But, they will require patience and discipline to scale into the names as there is absolutely no way to gauge when the carnage will pass. Energy equities are by far some of the biggest casualties of the sell-off and are thus some of the most attractive for longer term investors. And, for once, I actually agree with the analyst community, who point out attractive opportunities in the energy sector. But, then again, those opportunities could get even more attractive as we undoubtedly face strong waves of continued forced selling.

Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List Update

Yesterday (10/2), Goldman Sachs (GS) was out making some changes to its esteemed conviction buy list. They removed Freeport McMoran (FCX) from the list, but still reiterated a normal 'buy' rating on the name. Additionally, they have added Suncor (SU) to the list.

Copper mining giant Freeport McMoran (FCX) hit a new 52-week low of $45.17 yesterday as it continues to get obliterated. Just a few months back, it was trading as high as $125. Nowadays, amidst the commodity sell-off, deleveraging, and hedge fund redemptions, FCX is getting no love. Its valuation is borderline absurd, trading at around a 5 trailing PE and a 3.9 forward PE. But, valuation got thrown out a long time ago in this market environment. Hedge fund giants such as Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital and Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital had massive positions in FCX as of their most recent respective 13F filings with the SEC. Undoubtedly, the decline in FCX's share price has hit these funds hard. And, they most likely have been contributing to the selling. Last time we checked various hedge fund's year-to-date performances, Atticus was down 25% for the year and Harbinger, after being up 42% for the year, now finds themselves up only 2% (more numbers here). You can view Atticus' portfolio holdings here and Harbinger Capital's portfolio holdings here. Additionally, you can read more about Harbinger's exploits here.

Suncor (SU), on the other hand, was being added to the conviction buy list as shares continued to tumble. SU has fallen from a high of $73 to current levels of $33. Canadian Oil Sands giant Suncor (SU) is owned by numerous hedge funds, including legendary oil maverick T. Boone Pickens' BP Capital. And, as you can imagine, the share price depreciation in SU has affected Boone's portfolio in a negative way. Although not the sole reason for his funds' decline, Boone still finds himself down $1 billion for the year. You can view all of T. Boone Pickens' BP Capital equity holdings here.


Source: StreetInsider 1, 2

Boone Pickens' BP Capital Funds Down Big

If you are unfamiliar with T. Boone Pickens, he is an energy maverick and his fund returned 300% in 2005. He is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory and runs an energy-centric hedge fund (BP Capital) based in Dallas, Texas. His energy stock fund has a compounded annual return of 37% over seven years. Although he typically holds numerous positions in oil, he is also big on alternative energy (except ethanol) and has numerous holdings there as well. He most recently advocated a large natural gas position and has additionally made a big bet on wind energy. Some of his thoughts can be seen here from one of my posts. And, if you live under a rock, he's pushing for energy independence with his Pickens Plan.

But, it seems as if the maverick himself has had a rough last few months. We already knew that BP Capital had a rough July, where he was down almost 35%. And, it gets even worse. His hedge fund that focuses on energy stocks is down 30% through August. Additionally, his commodity fund is down 84% and is a poster child of leverage gone bad. (His commodity fund relies heavily on leverage, hence the larger losses). Ouch. All things considered, he has lost around $1 billion this year, $270 million of which is his own money.

Pickens said,

"It's my toughest run in 10 years.... We missed the turn in the market, there's nothing fun about it. I'm not willing to accept that [the downturn] was due to a global slowdown. When there's deleveraging in markets it will affect everything."

Additionally, he thinks oil prices will climb again due to oil demand outpacing supply and will maintain this view until he sees evidence of a true global slowdown. But, in a cautious move, he has shifted his portfolios to a more neutral stance. Curious as to what BP Capital had in their portfolio that was causing them so much pain? Well, then check out my analysis of their most recent portfolio holdings, found in their latest 13f filing. We'll have to see if ole Boone can turn his ship around in the next few months.

Source: WSJ

Hedge Fund Tracking: BP Capital's 13F (T. Boone Pickens)

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here).

Time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series! If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital here, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital here, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here. Next up, we have BP Capital. With all the commotion surrounding energy these days, it never hurts to track an energy focused hedge fund ran by none other than Boone Pickens. If you are unfamiliar with Pickens, he is an energy maverick and his fund returned 300% in 2005. He is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory and runs an energy-centric hedge fund based in Dallas, Texas. Although he typically holds numerous positions in oil, he is also big on alternative energy (except ethanol) and has numerous holdings there as well. He most recently advocated a large natural gas position and has additionally made a big bet on wind energy. Some of his thoughts can be seen here from one of my posts. And, if you didn't know, he's pushing for energy independence with his Pickens Plan.

So, now that we've got a little background on Boone and BP Capital, let's see what they were up to. The following are BP Capital's current holdings as of June 30th 2008, as released in their most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The positions in this most recent 13F were compared to last quarter's 13F and here are the changes made to their portfolio:

New Positions:
BPZ Resources (BZP): 350,000 shares. This position is 0.48% of BP's portfolio.
EOG Resources (EOG): 322,266 shares. This position is 1.9% of BP's portfolio.
Tenaris (TS): 1,106,394 shares. This position is 3.88% of BP's portfolio.
Devon Energy (DVN): 845,946 shares. This position is 4.79% of BP's portfolio.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 1,838,129 shares. This position is 5.7% of BP's portfolio.


Added to:
Occidental Petroleum (OXY): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 8.7% of their portfolio.
Transocean (RIG): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 8% of their portfolio.
Suncor (SU): Increased position by 105.7% (due to 2:1 stock split). Now 7% of their portfolio.
Schlumberger (SLB): Increased position by 11.6%. Now 6.5% of their portfolio.
Halliburton (HAL): Increased position by 65.7%. Now 6.1% of their portfolio.
Denbury Resources (DNR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 5.4% of their portfolio.
Weatherford (WFT): Increased position by 250%. Now 4.5% of their portfolio.
XTO Energy (XTO): Increased position by 66.66%. Now 3.85% of their portfolio.
Talisman Energy (TLM): Increased position by 19.8%. Now 3.78% of their portfolio.
ABB (ABB): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.65% of their portfolio.
Jacobs Engineering (JEC): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.55% of their portfolio.
Sandridge Energy (SD): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.2% of their portfolio.
Fluor (FLR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 2.75% of their portfolio.
Foster Wheeler (FWLT): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 2.57% of their portfolio.
Shaw Group (SGR): Increased position by 17.6%. Now 2.34% of their portfolio.
Chevron (CVX): Increased position by 2.8%. Now 2.11% of their portfolio.
Dresser Rand (DRC): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.79% of their portfolio.
McMoran Exploration (MMR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.35% of their portfolio.
KBR (KBR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.05% of their portfolio.
Greenbrier Companies (GBX): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 0.56% of their portfolio.


Reduced Positions:
none


Removed Positions (Positions BP sold out of completely):
Titanium Metals (TIE)


Positions with no change:
InterOil Corp (IOC): 1.3% of the portfolio
Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE): 0.2% of the portfolio


Top 10 holdings by % of portfolio:
1. Occidental Petroleum (OXY): 8.7% of the portfolio
2. Transocean (RIG): 8% of the portfolio
3. Suncor (SU): 7% of the portfolio
4. Schlumberger (SLB): 6.5% of the portfolio
5. Halliburton (HAL): 6.1% of the portfolio
6. Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 5.7% of the portfolio
7. Denbury Resources (DNR): 5.4% of the portfolio
8. Devon Energy (DVN): 4.79% of the portfolio
9. Weatherford Intl (WFT): 4.5% of the portfolio
10. Tenaris (TS): 3.88% of the portfolio

-------------------------------------------------------

Breakdown: T. Boone Pickens didn't do a whole lot of selling. In fact, he only made one sale: Titanium Metals (TIE), which he completely sold out of. But, in terms of selling... that's it. He didn't reduce any of his other positions at all. Whether he was hoarding cash or funding other purchases with his sale of TIE, who knows. But, what we do know, is that he was out adding various new positions and boosting stakes in current holdings. In terms of new holdings, Boone started some big positions in Tenaris (TS), Devon (DVN), and Chesapeake (CHK). All three positions were large enough to land in the top 10 of portfolio holdings after just being added last quarter. In terms of adding to existing holdings, Boone was adding heavily to XTO Energy (XTO), and Weatherford (WFT). He boosted his positions in XTO by 66% and in WFT by 250%. His top three holdings are Transocean (RIG), Occidental (OXY), and Suncor (SU).

The rest of additions T. Boone made are really minor. For instance, he added to a myriad of positions, increasing practically every other remaining position by around 2.8%. Don't try to make sense of this, because he did the exact same thing last quarter as I showed in the previous 13F update I wrote about BP here. Basically, it looks as if Boone has some spare cash laying around and he's slowly but surely easing into positions by adding to them by 2.8% each quarter. So, I think it makes sense to put more emphasis on the positions he has massively added to like the ones I highlighted in the paragraph above. But, at the same time, I think it's worth mentioning the various other names he seems to be slowly building a core position in over time.

That's really it concerning BP Capital's portfolio. Remember that this is an energy centric hedge fund and they undoubtedly have positions in the actual commodities markets themselves. And, we can't see these positions. Since the 13F filings we track are done through the SEC, they only track equities traded on the stock exchanges. The funds are not required to report holdings in the currency, commodity, or futures markets. So, keep in mind this is only the equity portion of BP's portfolio.

Boone Pickens Hedge Fund (BP Capital) Has Rough July

From Reuters:

"The commodity half of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens's BP Capital hedge fund lost 35 percent of its value in July, the New York Post said, citing sources."

Ouch. Sounds as if old T. Boone needs to spend a little bit less time campaigning for his PickensPlan, and a little more time running his hedge fund. (Okay, maybe that's a little harsh considering he is poised to make big $$$ should his 'Plan' materialize in any way shape or form). Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what his 13F looks like when he files that here in the next few days. It sounds as if he was pretty stubborn with some natural gas and oil plays though, that's for sure. Considering that commodities took it on the chin in July, and given the fact that his fund is energy-centric, the losses make sense. But, you'd think that someone with as much experience in the energy markets as Boone would be a bit quicker to react/adapt to what was happening.