David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital has had a rough 2018. They're now down 25.7% for the year. During the quarter, they exited the last of their longstanding Apple (AAPL) position at $228 per share.
They feel their AAPL thesis that was once differentiated has now become consensus and the valuation of 17x forward earnings is "much less enticing and we are somewhat worried about Chinese retaliation against America's trade policies."
Greenlight also continues to be bearish on Tesla and noted many similarities to Lehman Brothers before its collapse. They also highlighted CEO Elon Musk's erratic behavior. There's numerous paragraphs about TSLA in the letter below.
Greenlight New Longs: Altice USA and BT Group
In other notable portfolio activity, they initiated two new longs: Altice USA (ATUS) and BT Group.
ATUS they acquired at $18.38 and view it as a discounted play on cable peers in the US. They feel the company has better cashflow conversion and more investment opportunities than rivals.
BT Group they purchased at £2.19 and feel that shares were cheap at 4.7x EV/EBITDA and an 8% dividend yield.
They also covered their 11 year short in Martin Marietta Materials (MLM) and covered another short: TransDigm Group (TDG).
Also, they sold out of their Micron (MU) position and exited their Mylan (MYL) stake as well.
Greenlight Capital's Q3 Letter
Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q3 Letter:
For more recent hedge fund commentary, check out Bill Ackman's new long Starbucks SBUX presentaiton.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Greenlight Capital Q3 Letter: Sold Apple, Still Short Tesla
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Tiger Global Increases TransDigm Group Stake
Chase Coleman's hedge fund firm Tiger Global now owns 5.3% of TransDigm Group (TDG) with 2.78 million shares, per a 13G filed with the SEC. The filing was made due to portfolio activity on March 6th.
This is up from the 1.91 million shares they previously owned at the end of 2017. We've also posted about some other recent portfolio activity from Tiger here.
Per Google Finance, TransDigm Group is "a designer, producer and supplier of engineered aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft in service. The Company operates through three segments: Power & Control, Airframe and Non-aviation. The Power & Control segment includes operations that primarily develop, produce and market systems and components that provide power to or control power of the aircraft utilizing electronic, fluid, power and mechanical motion control technologies. The Airframe segment includes operations that primarily develop and market systems and components that are used in non-power airframe applications utilizing airframe and cabin structure technologies. The Non-aviation segment includes operations that primarily develop, produce and market products for non-aviation markets. Its product offerings include mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, engineered latching and locking devices, and seat belts and safety restraints."
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Tiger Global Increases TransDigm Group Position
Chase Coleman's hedge fund firm Tiger Global has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding its position in TransDigm Group (TDG). Per the filing, Tiger Global now owns 7.7% of TDG with 4 million shares.
This is a noticeable increase from the 2.45 million shares the hedge fund owned at the end of the first quarter. The filing was made due to activity on May 18th.
While this second quarter activity is notable, it's also worth pointing out that Tiger Global boosted its TDG position back in the first quarter by 492% as they previously owned a small position. Simply put, they've been acquiring a lot of TDG shares over the past five months.
TDG shares were hit in Q1 by a short seller report questioning the company's pricing practices. As detailed in the brand new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter, numerous hedge funds bought TDG shares in Q1.
Per Google Finance, TransDigm Group is "a designer, producer and supplier of engineered aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft in service. The Company operates through three segments: Power & Control, Airframe and Non-aviation. The Power & Control segment includes operations that primarily develop, produce and market systems and components that provide power to or control power of the aircraft utilizing electronic, fluid, power and mechanical motion control technologies. The Airframe segment includes operations that primarily develop and market systems and components that are used in non-power airframe applications utilizing airframe and cabin structure technologies. The Non-aviation segment includes operations that primarily develop, produce and market products for non-aviation markets. Its product offerings include mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, engineered latching and locking devices, and seat belts and safety restraints."
To view the rest of Tiger Global's portfolio, check out the just released issue of our premium newsletter.
Friday, May 12, 2017
Graham & Doddsville Spring 2017 Issue: Begg, Sosin, Krishna
Columbia Business School is out with its spring 2017 issue of Graham and Doddsville. It features:
- Interview with A. Rama Krishna of ARGA Investment Management who talked about investing in international markets and in particular, Russia.
- Interview with Cliff Sosin of CAS Investment Partners talking Herbalife (HLF) and World Acceptance (WRLD).
- Interview with Chris Begg of East Coast Asset Management, who we've featured on the site numerous times in the past. He shares his thesis on TransDigm Group (TDG) and thoughts on Sherwin Williams (SHW).
The new issue also includes student investment pitches such as long Yum China (YUMC), long Alaska Airlines (ALK), long Corning (GLW), and long Dollarama (DOL).
Embedded below is the spring 2017 issue of Graham & Doddsville:
You can download a .pdf copy here.
For more of their past issues, we've also posted up their interview with Kingstown Capital as well as their interview with Meritage Group and MSD Capital.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
What We're Reading ~ 5/4/16
Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World's Greatest Value Investors [Benello]
The internet economy [Chris Dixon]
Everything as a service [Stratechery]
A look at Cable One (CABO) [Value Seeker]
Rise of the robots is sparking an investment boom [FT]
Nielsen's blindspot and the fight for the future of TV ratings [The Wrap]
Company profile of TransDigm Group [Rational Walk]
Building failure into your process [A Wealth of Common Sense]
'Free' shipping crowds out small retailers [WSJ]
Africa's market of 1.2 billion people still holds huge promise [Economist]
Is Facebook approaching bubble territory? [Peridot Capitalist]
How grocery stores can survive Amazon [Bloomberg]
In China's Northeast, a daily jostle for jobs [NYTimes]
Baidu's moral dilemma [CNSpoon]
Google's yearly founders' letter [GoogleBlog]
Google has run away with the web search market and no one is chasing [Quartz]
Why are there so many mattress stores? [Marketplace]
The US homeownership rate falls again [WSJ]
How to be a better networker [Both Sides of the Ghost]
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
What We're Reading ~ 5/6/15
A must-read on behavioral finance: Thinking, Fast and Slow [Daniel Kahneman]
Margin debt hits all-time highs: why you shouldn't be concerned [Kimble Charting]
What you should and shouldn't learn from Warren Buffett [WSJ]
With big names and money flowing in, tech startups in India heat up [NYTimes]
3 stocks pitched by Weitz Value Fund [Forbes]
Transdigm: when is a large moat worth more than 30x earnings? [Seeking Alpha]
On the pricing and valuing of top managers [Aswath Damodaran]
A guide to reading for investors [Safal Niveshak]
A pitch on Viacom [BeyondProxy]
Tim Cook on Apple's future: everything can change except values [Fast Company]
Silicon Valley veteran steers Softbank's deals [WSJ]
How Airbnb could spawn an M&A frenzy in the hotel industry [Fortune]
Casinos failed Atlantic City, but they're still part of its future [The Deal Newsroom]
Insurers take on more risk in search of returns [NYTimes]
Thursday, October 31, 2013
What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 10/31/13
A look at TransDigm Group (TDG) [Brooklyn Investor]
Repeatedly burned, short sellers avoid momentum stocks [Reuters]
Liberty Global: On the European empire John Malone's built [BusinessWeek]
Michael Lewis on the next crisis [BusinessWeek]
For once mighty Sears, pictures of decay [Dealbook]
Amazon and the profitless business model fallacy [Eugene Wei]
A write-up on Emerald Oil (EOX) [Dedwardssays]
Trucking companies inching toward using natural gas as fuel [WSJ]
The new reality of international bonds [Vanguard]
Time to buy former retailing darling Tesco [Institutional Investor]
GlaxoSmithKline's China conundrum [FT]
Moats widen for railroads & luxury goods [Morningstar]
Eastman Chemical: specialty chemical for commodity price [Seeking Alpha]
Current tech euphoria in Silicon Valley isn't exactly like 1999 [WSJ]
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital Starts TransDigm Group (TDG) Position
Stephen Mandel's hedge fund firm Lone Pine Capital just filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of TransDigm Group (TDG). Per the filing, detailing portfolio activity on September 29th, Lone Pine has disclosed a 5.0% ownership stake in TDG with 2,479,871 shares. This is a brand new position and the majority of shares reside in their Lone Cascade fund.
In the past, TransDigm Group had been a sizable position for Chase Coleman's fellow hedge fund Tiger Global Management. Additionally, this has been one of Dan Loeb's largest equity positions both as detailed months ago in our newsletter, Hedge Fund Wisdom.
In terms of other recent portfolio activity from Mandel's hedge fund, we noted Lone Pine's sale of Intertek Group as well as an increase in their VanceInfo Technologies stake (VIT). Mandel founded Lone Pine after previously working at Julian Robertson's Tiger Management. Lone Pine is named after a historical lone pine tree at Mandel's alma mater, Dartmouth College.
Taken from Google Finance, TransDigm Group is "a global designer, producer and supplier of highly engineered aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft."
To see the rest of Lone Pine's positions, click here.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Dan Loeb's Hedge Fund Third Point Starts Multiple New Positions, Exits Citigroup: 13F Filing Q1 2010
(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund filings.)
Next up is Dan Loeb's hedge fund Third Point LLC. Loeb started his hedge fund with $3.3 million in 1995 and today manages billions with a focus on event-driven and value oriented investments. In the time elapsed since the 13F filing, keep in mind that Third Point has been selling Nabi Biopharma (NABI) and Loeb recently gave commentary on event-driven opportunities in Third Point's investor letter. Since inception, they've seen greater than 15% annual returns. For 2009, Third Point's Offshore fund was up 38.6% and their Ultra fund up 44.2% as noted in our list of hedge fund performance numbers.
Before we proceed, keep in mind that Loeb owns other asset classes that aren't required in these disclosures such as company debt, mortgage backed securities, etc. We recently detailed Loeb's exposure to these assets in our portfolio update on Third Point. To learn how to invest like this hedge fund manager, check out Dan Loeb's recommended reading.
The positions listed below were Third Point's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2010 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted:
Brand New Positions
Liberty Interactive (LINTA)
OSI Pharmaceutical (OSIP)
Airgas (AIRG)
Walgreen (WAG)
Coca Cola Enterprise (CCE)
Aspen Technology (AZPN)
Pall (PLL)
Alcon (ACL)
Toyota Motor (TM)
Phillips Van Heusen (PVH)
RF Micro (RFMD)
Lear (LEA)
Brocade Communications (BRCD)
Madison Square Garden (MSG) ~ resulting from the spin-off of Cablevision shares they previously owned
Macys (M)
Alkermes (ALKS)
Washington Post (WPO)
Vivus (VVUS)
Kraft (KFT)
Abraxas Petro (ABP)
Increased Positions
Xerox (XRX): Increased position size by 75%
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): Increased by 50%
CIT Group (CIT): Increased by 34.3%
Popular (BPOP): Increased by 25%
Wellpoint (WLP): Increased by 18.2%
Reduced Positions
Phoenix Companies (PNX): Reduced position size by 76.3%
Dana Corp (DAN): Reduced by 68.8%
Nabi Biophamaceuticals (NABI): Reduced by 14.2% ~ Third Point has since sold more
Positions They Sold Out of Completely
Citigroup (C)
Cablevision (CVC)
Energy Partners (EPL)
Coinstar (CSTR)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Liberty Entertainment (LSTAV)
Hewlett Packard (HPQ)
Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) ~ inactive due to merger
Pepsiamericas (PAS) ~ same
Capitalsource (CSE)
Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE)
American Water Works (AWK)
Pain Therapeutics (PTIE)
Life Partners (LPHI)
Barclays (BCS)
TCW Strategic (TSI)
Top 15 Holdings (by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing)
1. PHH Corp (PHH): 7.6%
2. Transdigm (TDG): 6.8%
3. CIT Group (CIT): 6.5%
4. Wellpoint (WLP): 6%
5. Health Net (HNT): 5.3%
6. Liberty Interactive (LINTA): 5.2%
7. OSI Pharmaceutical (OSIP): 5.1%
8. Xerox (XRX): 4.9%
9. Airgas (ARG): 4.2%
10. Walgreen (WAG): 4.0%
11. Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE): 4%
12. Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN): 3.7%
13. Aspen Technology (AZPN): 3.7%
14. Pall (PLL): 2.9%
15. Popular (BPOP): 2.6%
Before we analyze some of their moves we need to immediately point out that the 'top positions' above are merely their top equity positions and not Third Point's 'top positions' at the hedge fund overall. According to our Third Point portfolio breakdown, Loeb's largest positions are actually via multiple securities (debt, equity, etc) in Chrysler, Delphi, CIT Group, Dana Holding, and PHH. So, just keep in mind that some of his debt positions are actually the largest positions in Third Point's portfolio.
One of the main things that caught our eye was Loeb's sale of Capitalsource (CSE). Third Point had previously held a position and now joins a slew of other hedgies that sold out of CSE in the first quarter. Interestingly enough, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group still holds their CSE equity stake though. We also highlight Loeb's exit from Citigroup (C) because in the fourth quarter of 2009 it was their second largest US equity position.
In the first quarter, Loeb's hedge fund started sizable new stakes in Liberty Interactive and OSI Pharm, positions that were Third Point's sixth and seventh largest US equity holdings. In fact, the vast majority of Third Point's top equity holdings are new positions they started in Q1 including Airgas, Walgreen, Coca Cola Enterprise, Aspen Technology, and Pall.
Third Point's exit of PepsiAmericas and Pepsi Bottling Group is a result of a merger transaction with PepsiCo that closed. This is the perfect example of an event-driven play that Loeb typically seeks. We see that Third Point maintains a sizable position in Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN) as well. We previously outlined Loeb's rationale behind MJN in a post: why hedge funds like Mead Johnson Nutrition. We're also starting to see numerous hedge funds that show new or increased positions in Xerox (XRX) as of the first quarter. Loeb's firm was one of them and so that might be something to keep an eye on as well.
David Einhorn must be pissed because Loeb sold out off Greenlight Capital Re, the reinsurance company Einhorn is chairman of. We're just kidding about the being pissed off part, but Third Point had previously owned GLRE for quite some time (although a very small position). On a serious note though, it seems as though Loeb and Einhorn agree on shares of CIT Group. As we saw earlier, Einhorn added to his CIT position. That about wraps up all the talking points from the first quarter so if you want more from Dan Loeb, make sure to check out his recommended reading list.
Assets reported on the 13F filing were $1.4 billion this quarter. Data from the SEC is aggregated and sorted automatically by Alphaclone, our source for hedge fund tracking, replicating, and performance backtesting (Market Folly readers can receive a special free 30 day trial). Remember that these filings are not representative of the hedge fund's entire base of AUM.
This post is part of our daily hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already detailed activity from numerous managers so click the links below to be taken to the respective portfolio updates: Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Eddie Lampert's RBS Partners, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital Management, and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global. Be sure to check back daily for new hedge fund updates.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Jonathan Auerbach's Hound Partners Bets On Transdigm Group (TDG): 13F Filing
(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.)
Next up is Jonathan Auerbach's hedge fund Hound Partners. Hound is a New York based firm that Auerbach started with assistance from legendary hedgie Julian Robertson. He is one of the many 'Tiger Seeds' that Robertson has sprouted up in an attempt to crank out a new round of successful investment managers. Auerbach of course previously worked for Robertson's Tiger Management.
If you hadn't noticed, we're starting to get into some 'smaller funds' (and we use that term loosely) in regards to assets under management. We started with funds in the billions and now we're covering some that manage hundreds of millions. We've elected to do so in an effort to identify up and coming managers as well as to showcase how smaller funds often run more concentrated portfolios and are easier to track.
The positions listed below were Hound Partners' long equity, note, and options holdings as of December 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.
Brand New Positions
DirecTV (DTV) & Liberty Media Starz (LSTZA) ~ both as a result of the recent merger
Windstream (WIN)
Increased Positions
Monsanto (MON): Increased position size by 68.7%
Heckman (HEK): Increased by 18.9%
Transdigm Group (TDG): Increased by 15.8%
Chimera (CIM): Increased by 12.4%
Reduced Positions
American Tower (AMT): Reduced position size by 49.6%
Rambus (RMBS): Reduced by 42.1%
Abovenet (ABVT): Reduced by 38%
Heckmann WTS (HEK-WS): Reduced by 33.5%
Arabian Amern (ARSD): Reduced by 32.9%
Grace WR & Co (GRA): Reduced by 27.7%
HQ Sustainable (HQS): Reduced by 22.1%
Removed Positions (Sold out completely):
Liberty Media (LMDIA) ~ merger complete
Berkley (WRB)
Google (GOOG)
Myriad Pharma (MYRX)
Alexandria Real Estate (ARE)
Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing
- Transdigm Group (TDG): 13.98%
- DirecTV (DTV): 10.6%
- Kinder Morgan (KMR): 10.17%
- Liberty Media Starz (LSTZA): 8.57%
- Grace WR & Co (GRA): 7.01%
- Petrohawk (HK): 6.86%
- Monsanto (MON): 6.73%
- Abovenet (ABVT): 6.31%
- Heckmann (HEK): 5.44%
- Covanta (CVA): 4.73%
- Great Lakes (GLDD): 3.98%
- Chimera (CIM): 3.86%
- Echostar (SATS): 2.40%
- Usec Bonds: 1.97%
- American Tower (AMT): 1.80%
While these SEC filings obviously do not disclose their entire set of positions or assets under management, one thing you can immediately notice about Hound Partners is the fact that a lot of their US long equity stakes are very concentrated. Their top 10 positions are far more concentrated than the vast majority of hedge funds we've tracked in our series. In fact, their 10th largest stake garners a larger portfolio weighting than many other hedgies' top position. (Keep in mind that there are still some gaps left in the portfolio picture that we can't see since they aren't included in disclosures). That said, Hound still runs a more concentrated basket of stocks and as such is a good fund for tracking purposes as you know they have conviction in their plays.
One of their interesting positions we took note of was Heckmann (HEK) as we've not seen it pop up in other hedgie portfolios. In the past, this has been labeled as a backdoor Chinese water play. Their largest and most notable stake though is in Transdigm Group (TDG) and we highlight this because Dan Loeb's Third Point is also betting big on TDG.
Auerbach's hedge fund had a massive stake in Liberty Media (over 14% of their previously reported assets) that has now translated into positions in Liberty Starz and DirecTV as a result of the merger. We see yet another hedge fund interested in tower stocks and Hound Partners has chosen to play this data theme via American Tower. However, they did chop their position in half over the past quarter so take note. The only major addition they made was to their existing stake in Monsanto (MON) as they increased it by over 68%. In terms of sales, they let a third of their GRA position go and cut even more of their ABVT stake.
Data used for this article comes from Alphaclone, our source for backtesting strategies and sorting through all the hedge fund portfolio maneuvers with ease. Assets reported on the 13F filing were $348 million this quarter compared to $347 million last quarter. Remember that these filings are not representative of the hedge fund's entire base of AUM.
We'll be tracking 40+ prominent funds in our fourth quarter 2009 hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund, Carl Icahn's hedge fund Icahn Partners, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, Warren Buffett's portfolio, John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Dan Loeb's Third Point, Eddie Lampert's RBS Partners, David Ott's Viking Global, and Chris Shumway's hedge fund Shumway Capital Partners, Chase Coleman's Tiger Global, Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, Roberto Mignone's Bridger Management, Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital, John Burbank's Passport Capital, Brett Barakett's Tremblant Capital, George Soros' hedge fund Soros Fund Management, and Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management, and Charles Anderson's Fox Point Capital. Check back daily for our new updates.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Dan Loeb's Third Point Likes Citigroup & Transdigm Group: 13F Filing
(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.)
Next up is Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC. Third Point manages a series of hedge funds and focus on event driven and value oriented investments. Loeb started his hedge fund with $3.3 million in 1995 and today manages billions. To learn how to invest like a prominent hedge fund manager, check out Dan Loeb's recommended reading list. Additionally, we recommend watching a video of Dan Loeb giving some general investing advice.
Since inception, they've seen greater than 15% annual returns. For 2009, Third Point's Offshore fund was up 38.6% and their Ultra fund up 44.2% as noted in our list of hedge fund performance numbers. The positions listed below were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of December 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.
Brand New Positions
Citigroup (C)
CIT Group (CIT) ~ most likely a result of debt to equity conversion
Affiliated Comp (ACS)
Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN)
Xerox (XRX)
Energy Partners (EPL) ~ likely a result of senior notes converting into equity
DirecTV (DTV) ~ a result of the Liberty Media merger
Yahoo (YHOO)
Liberty Media (LSTZA) ~ also a result of the Liberty Media merger
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Pain Therapeutics (PTIE)
Life Partners (LPHI)
TCW Strategic (TSI)
Increased Positions
Coinstar (CSTR): Increased by 183.3%
Transdigm (TDG): Increased by 80%
Wellpoint (WLP): Increased by 37.5%
Capitalsource (CSE): Increased by 14.6%
Reduced Positions
American Water Works (AWK): Reduced by 75%
Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE): Reduced by 54%
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Reduced by 50%
Popular (BPOP): Reduced by 43.7%
Removed Positions (Sold out completely):
Wyeth (inactive) ~ merger transaction complete
CF Industries (CF)
Liberty Acquisition (LIA)
Bank of America (BAC)
Molson Coors (TAP)
Pfizer (PFE)
Allergan (AGN)
Schering Plough (inactive) ~ merger transaction complete
Apple (AAPL)
Trian Acquisition (inactive)
Liberty Media (LSTZA)
Carefusion (CFN)
Anadrako Petroleum (APC)
First American (FAF)
Lions Gate (LGF)
Synaptics (SYNA)
Oracle (ORCL)
Resolute Energy (REN)
Alkermes (ALKS)
Blockbuster (BBI)
Stream Global (OOO)
Blockbuster b shares (BBI.B)
Loral Space (LORL)
Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing
- Transdigm Group (TDG): 9.1%
- Citigroup (C): 8.9%
- PHH (PHH): 8.4%
- Healthnet (HNT): 7.5%
- Wellpoint (WLP): 6.9%
- CIT Group (CIT): 5.2%
- Affiliated Comp (ACS): 5.1%
- Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN): 4.7%
- Cablevision (CVC): 4.1%
- Xerox (XRX): 3.6%
- Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NABI): 3.6%
- Energy Partners (EPL): 3%
- Coinstar (CSTR): 2.5%
- DirecTV (DTV): 2.5%
- Depomed (DEPO): 2.4%
Third Point initiated quite a few brand new positions in the fourth quarter, but keep in mind that some of them are a result of coporate transactions. After all, Third Point focuses on event-driven strategies and often holds positions in numerous asset classes. Their CIT stake is most likely a result of a debt to equity conversion, while their positions in DTV and LSTZA are from the recent Liberty Media merger. Additionally, we detailed Third Point's new EPL position that was most likely a result of senior notes converting into equity.
Their Citigroup (C) stake is brand new and they brought it all the way up to their 2nd largest US equity long. Additionally, their brand new position in baby formula producer Mead Johnson (MJN) intrigued us because we're seeing more and more prominent hedge funds add MJN.
On the selling side, they dumped CF (previously their 3rd largest US equity holding), Bank of America which was previously their fifth largest, and Popular which was their sixth largest. Interestingly they only held their Popular (BPOP) stake for one quarter.
It was also interesting to see Loeb sell over half of his Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE) stake. This has always been a very small position for them, but they've held it for quite a long time so it was curious to see them all of a sudden adjust it. GLRE of course is the casualty and property reinsurer chaired by David Einhorn of hedge fund Greenlight Capital.
We'll be tracking 40+ prominent funds in our fourth quarter 2009 hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund, Carl Icahn's hedge fund Icahn Partners, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, David Tepper's Appaloosa Management, Warren Buffett's portfolio, John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co, and Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital. Check back daily for our new updates.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Chase Coleman's Hedge Fund Tiger Global: Portfolio Update
Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global has not yet filed their 13F filing as of the time of writing. However, what they have filed is a slew of amended 13G filings with the SEC due to activity on December 31st, 2009. This means we get a glimpse as to the updated sizes of some of their portfolio positions and we'll of course detail the rest of the changes when their 13F is released. We've covered Chase Coleman extensively on the site before and in January noted that Tiger started an Apollo Group (APOL) stake. Additionally, Tiger was mentioned in our recent post about how hedge funds have been bullish on tower stocks. Now, it's time to see what else they've been up to.
Firstly, Coleman's hedge fund firm is showing a 7.6% ownership stake in MercadoLibre (MELI) with 3,366,343 shares. Tiger has increased their stake by 125,000 shares (a 3.8% boost) over the past 4.5 months. This is because as of their last 13F filing (which detailed positions as of September 30th, 2009) Tiger previously owned 3,241,343 shares.
Secondly, we see that Tiger Global filed a 13G on ChinaEdu Corporation (CEDU) and shows a 0% ownership stake with 0 shares. This filing is a bit peculiar as they did not show ownership of shares in their last 13F filing either from back on September 30th, 2009. So, we're not really sure why this was filed.
Thirdly, they have disclosed a 2.0% ownership stake in Gushan Environmental Energy (GU) with 3,409,923 shares. This is an increase of 434,817 shares (a 14.6% boost in position size). Back on September 30th, 2009, they owned 2,975,106 shares.
Fourthly, Tiger Global is also showing a 6.4% ownership stake in TransDigm Group (TDG) with 3,157,329 shares. They've boosted their holdings in this position by 360,732 shares since September 30th, 2009 (a 12.9% increase).
Lastly, we round out this update with the fact that they have disclosed a 0% ownership stake in WNS Holdings Limited (WNS) with 0 shares. This is another one of those weird filings that doesn't make much sense to us since they did not hold a position in WNS in their last 13F disclosure either. If anyone has an idea as to what is going on, feel free to comment below. Regardless, we're just here to update you on what was filed.
In addition to those disclosures, we also recently got a glimpse into one of Tiger's short positions. In July of 2009, Tiger Global was short 0.9% of Banco Popular's shares (BPOP). Then, as of January 2010 (and right before Popular announced their earnings), we learned that Tiger had reduced their short position to only 0.22% of shares. Back when we detailed a previous Tiger investor letter, we made note that their short positions were causing them some pain, as was the case in the vast majority of hedge fund land.
Chase Coleman is a 'Tiger Cub' because he previously plied his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. Coleman is also considered a 'Tiger Seed' because he is one of the few managers that Robertson actually seeded himself in an effort to recognize talented up and coming managers. Coleman's hedge fund is one of the many included in the Tiger Cub Portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can piggyback the investment portfolios of some of the top investors out there.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Chase Coleman's Tiger Global: Portfolio Update (13F Filing)
This is the third quarter 2009 edition of our hedge fund portfolio tracking series. If you're unfamiliar with tracking hedge fund movements or SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.
The next hedge fund in our series is Chase Coleman's Tiger Global. Coleman is a 'Tiger Cub' because he learned to ply his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. However, Coleman is also a 'Tiger Seed' in that he is one of the few managers that Robertson actually seeded himself in an effort to recognize talent. Tiger Global is one of the hedge funds that comprises the Tiger Cub Portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can replicate their positions and enjoy 15.5% annualized returns since 2000.
Here's some Wall Street trivia for you: Which hedge fund manager is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the man who built the wall that gave Wall Street its name? Yep, Chase Coleman. Chase attended Williams College and his focus in the markets has always been on smaller cap names and on technology. Although, he has since expanded his horizons. In 2007, Tiger Global returned 70%, and from 2001-2007 Coleman returned 47% on average. This year started off rough for Tiger as financial and REIT short positions hurt portfolio performance, something they talked about in a past investor letter. In terms of recent portfolio activity out of Tiger, we've seen them selling Longtop Financial shares for quite some time now.
Keep in mind that the positions listed below were Tiger's long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We don't cover every single portfolio maneuver, as we instead focus on all the big moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.
Some New Positions
Brand new positions that they initiated last quarter:
PepsiCo (PEP)
Monsanto (MON)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Electronic Arts (ERTS)
McDonalds (MCD)
Airvana (AIRV)
Some Increased Positions
Positions they already owned but added shares to:
Discovery Communications (DISCA): Increased position by 137.7%
ETrade Financial (ETFC): Increased by 80%
Cablevision (CVC): Increased by 2.8%
Transdigm (TDG): Increased by 25.4%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Increased by 22.3%
Some Reduced Positions
Stakes they sold shares in but still own:
Gushan (GU): Reduced position by 55.3%
Longtop Financial (LFT): Reduced by 52%
Priceline (PCLN): Reduced by 40%
Advisory Board Company (ABCO): Reduced by 35.4%
American Tower (AMT): Reduced by 31%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 29.3%
Teradata (TDC): Reduced by 27.4%
Visa (V): Reduced by 21.8%
Lorillard (LO): Reduced by 12%
Removed Positions
Positions they sold out of completely:
Philip Morris International (PM)
Gymboree (GYMB)
Partnerre (PRE)
Crown Holdings (CCK)
Broadridge (BR)
Altria Group (MO)
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)
Cognizant Technology (CTSH)
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
Netezza (NZ)
Solarwinds (SWI)
Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing
- Mastercard (MA): 10.31%
- Google (GOOG): 10.02%
- Lorillard (LO): 8.06%
- Pepsico (PEP): 6.87%
- Visa (V): 5.91%
- Transdigm (TDG): 5.85%
- Priceline (PCLN): 5.45%
- Mercadolibre (MELI): 5.23%
- Monsanto (MON): 5.12%
- American Tower (AMT): 4.18%
- Longtop Financial (LFT): 4.17%
- Yahoo (YHOO): 4.04%
- Discovery Communications (DISCK): 3.31%
- Qualcomm (QCOM): 3.27%
- Cablevision (CVC): 2.82%
Notable moves in hedge fund Tiger Global's portfolio include starting a brand new stake in PepsiCo (PEP) and bringing it up to their fourth largest holding. This could possibly be arbitrage driven as John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co detailed some Pepsi arbitrage in their investor letter. Additionally, Tiger's new stakes in Yahoo (YHOO) and Monsanto (MON) were pretty sizable and are worth mentioning as well. Their position in Priceline (PCLN) certainly fared well for them as shares have risen sharply over the past few months. As such, they've reduced their position in it by 40%.
Another change worth mentioning is their continued selling of Longtop Financial. We've detailed those sales right after they've happened given that Tiger had to file amended 13D's on this position each time a major sale took place. They also sold off nearly a third of their American Tower (AMT) position and we mention this because shares of AMT have been a favorite stock amongst hedge funds, and particularly amongst Tiger Cub hedge funds. The only major position they sold completely out of was Philip Morris (PM), but even that was only a marginal position for them in the past, at 2.89% of the portfolio previously.
Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $2.38 billion this quarter compared to $2.15 billion 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. Also, please again note that these positions were as of September 30th so two months have elapsed and they've undoubtedly shifted around their portfolio since then.
This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our Q3 2009 hedge fund portfolio series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, John Paulson's firm Paulson & Co, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global so check back daily as we'll be covering new hedge fund portfolios.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Dan Loeb's Third Point Starts New Stakes In Popular (BPOP), TransDigm (TDG), & Health Net (HNT)
This is the third quarter 2009 edition of our hedge fund portfolio tracking series. If you're unfamiliar with tracking hedge fund movements or SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.
Next up in our series is Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC. Third Point is a multi-billion dollar hedge fund that has seen annual returns greater than 15% since inception. Manager Dan Loeb focuses on event driven and value oriented investments and recently said he feels "like a kid in a candy store" due to all the distressed opportunities. In his past letter to investors, Loeb noted that he liked selective automotive debt plays. As noted in our hedge fund performance numbers post, Third Point was up 6.4% for August and 5.1% for September and were up 27.8% year-to-date at that time. For more market insight, definitely check out Dan Loeb's recommended reading list. Loeb started the fund back in 1995 with around $3.3 million in seed capital and today manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio. For some of his market insight and general thoughts on the industry, check out this video of a speech he gave.
Keep in mind that the positions listed below were Third Point's long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We don't cover every single portfolio maneuver, as we instead focus on all the big moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.
Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated last quarter):
Listed by their largest new stake first, and descending down
Popular (BPOP)
Transdigm (TDG)
Healthnet (HNT)
Wellpoint (WLP)
Cablevision (CVC)
American Water Works (AWK)
CareFusion (CFN)
First American (FAF)
Synaptics (SYNA)
Dana Holding (DAN)
Coinstar (CSTR)
Capitalsource (CSE)
Barclays (BCS)
Alkermes (ALKS)
Blockbuster (BBI)
Blockbuster B shares (BBI.B)
Loral Space & Communication (LORL)
Some Increased Positions (Positions they already owned but added shares to)
Schering Plough (SGP): Increased by 300% - inactive now due to buyout
Molson Coors (TAP): Increased by 45.5%
Pfizer (PFE): Increased by 40.7%
Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG): Increased by 33.3%
PepsiAmericas (PAS): Increased by 25%
Wyeth (WYE): Increased by 24% - inactive now due to buyout
Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold shares in)
Bank of America (BAC): Reduced by 54.9%
Phoenix Companies (PNX): Reduced by 7.3%
Flat Positions (Stakes with no change in amount of shares owned since Q2)
Ligand Pharma (LGND), Oracle (ORCL), Biofuel Energy (BIOF), Trian Acquisition (TUX), Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE), Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF), Liberty Acquisition (LIA), Liberty Media (LMDIA), Allergan (AGN), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Apple (AAPL), PHH (PHH), Depomed (DEPO), and Nabi Biopharma (NABI).
Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Sun Microsystems (JAVA)
Transatlantic Holdings (TRH)
Quest Communications (Q)
Legg Mason (LMI)
Maguire Properties (MPG) - we had covered them selling back in July
Guaranty Financial (GFGFQ)
Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing
- Wyeth (WYE): 15.2% (inactive, bought out by Pfizer)
- PHH (PHH): 7.1%
- CF Industries (CF): 5.5%
- Liberty Acquisition (LIA): 5.2%
- Bank of America (BAC): 4%
- Popular (BPOP): 4%
- Transdigm (TDG): 3.9%
- HealthNet (HNT): 3.7%
- Molson Coors (TAP): 3.1%
- Pfizer (PFE): 3%
- Wellpoint (WLP): 3%
- Cablevision (CVC): 2.8%
- Depomed (DEPO): 2.3%
- Allergan (AGN): 2.2%
- Hewlett Packard (HPQ): 2.2%
Overall, the vast majority of changes in Dan Loeb's portfolio were via either buying completely new stakes, or selling out of holdings entirely. There were only a few partial adjustments to the portfolio. In terms of brand new stakes, their positions in Popular (BPOP), Transdigm (TDG), and Healthnet (HNT) were all pretty large as they landed in the top 10 of Third Point's long US equity portfolio. It's also worth highlighting that their new stakes in Wellpoint (WLP) and Cablevision (CVC) were not far behind in terms of size either.
Notable positions that they sold completely out of include Yahoo (YHOO) and Sun Microsystems (JAVA). Those positions had previously been their 6th and 7th largest US equity holdings when we covered Loeb's portfolio in Q2 of this year. One position they still hold onto but did sell some of was their large stake in Bank of America (BAC). They just started that position last quarter and in one of his past investor letters, Loeb mentioned BAC could see ~$3 per share in normalized earnings power. It is interesting though that he has already sold more than half of his position.
You'll note the vast increase in their Schering Plough stake, but keep in mind that the security is now inactive as it was bought out by Merck earlier on. So, it appears that Loeb and company were playing the arbitrage of that buyout. In another arbitrage play, Third Point boosted their holdings in Wyeth (WYE) as they were set to be bought by Pfizer (PFE). And speaking of Pfizer, Third Point also increased their stake there and it is notable seeing how David Einhorn of hedge fund Greenlight Capital is also very fond of PFE.
Overall though, not terribly too much to report on in terms of portfolio changes as they continue to play their event driven game. Keep in mind that Third Point also operates in the distressed arenas and we cannot see those portfolio holdings as the SEC only requires hedge funds to file on their equity, options, and note positions in US markets. We have already covered the fact that Loeb was seeing tons of opportunities in the distressed space a few months back. So, just realize that these equities are not representative of their entire portfolio. In terms of other recent activity of out Loeb's fund, they filed a 13G on Energy Partners (EPL) not too long ago which we also detailed.
Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $1.2 billion this quarter compared to $901 million last quarter, so an increase of around $299 million or so invested on the long side in US equities and notes. 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. Realistically, the position percentages are more watered down in their actual hedge fund portfolio.
This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our Q3 2009 hedge fund portfolio series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, and Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital. Check back daily as we'll be posting up a new hedge fund's portfolio each morning.
