PointState Capital Boosts Stake in The Medicines Company

Zach Schreiber's hedge fund firm PointState Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding its position in The Medicines Co (MDCO).  Per the filing, PointState now owns 5.3% of the company with over 3.87 million shares.

This is up from the 3.7 million shares they owned at the end of the first quarter.  The filing was made due to portfolio activity on June 1st.

Per Yahoo Finance, The Medicines Company is "a biopharmaceutical company, provides medicines to treat acute and intensive care patients. The company markets Angiomax, an intravenous direct thrombin inhibitor used as an anticoagulant in combination with aspirin in patients with unstable angina undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in the United States. It primarily focuses on developing Inclisiran, a lipid-lowering drug to reduce LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular risk-equivalents. The company has collaboration agreements with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; SciClone Pharmaceuticals; and Symbio Pharmaceuticals Limited. The Medicines Company was founded in 1996 and is based in Parsippany, New Jersey."

PointState Capital Discloses Comstock Resources Stake

Zach Schreiber's hedge fund firm PointState Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC on shares of Comstock Resources (CRK).  Per the filing, PointState now owns 9.99% of the company with 1.49 million shares.

This is a newly disclosed equity position for the firm and the filing was made due to activity on November 8th.

Per Google Finance, Comstock Resources is "an energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas in the United States. The Company operates in the segment of exploration and production of oil and natural gas. The Company's oil and gas operations are concentrated in Texas and Louisiana. Its operations are focused in two operating areas: East Texas/North Louisiana and South Texas. The Company's properties in the East Texas/North Louisiana region include approximately 80,660 acres in the Haynesville or Bossier shale formations. The Company's Eagleville field includes approximately 30,220 acres located in the oil window of the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas. The Company owns interests in over 1,575 producing oil and natural gas wells, and operates over 950 of these wells. The Company owns interests in over 20 wells in the Rosita field, located in Duval County, Texas."

PointState Capital Discloses Grupo Supervielle Position

Zach Schreiber's hedge fund firm PointState Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Grupo Supervielle S.A. (SUPV).  Per the filing, PointState now owns 6.3% of the company with 3 million American Depositary Receipt (ADR) shares, which is equivalent to 15 million Class B shares.

The filing was made due to activity on May 19th as the company just completed its initial public offering (IPO). 

For more from this manager, Schreiber recently gave investment ideas at the Sohn Conference in New York.

Per Google Finance, Grupo Supervielle is "an Argentina-based holding company primarily engaged in the financial sector. The Company provides services through numerous subsidiaries, such as Banco Supervielle SA, that offers bank services, mainly to individuals and commercial customers; Cordial Compania Financiera SA, which focuses on credit card issuing, as well as providing consumer loans and insurance for Wal-Mart Argentina customers; Tarjeta Automatica SA, which issues and administrates credit cards; Cordial Microfinanzas SA, that offers financing for urban micro-enterprises; Supervielle Seguros SA, which sells insurance products; Supervielle Asset Management Sociedad Gerente de FCI SA, which manages investment funds, and Espacio Cordial Servicios SA, that distributes audio and video equipment, computers, home appliance and air conditioning units, among others. The Company operates in the domestic market. ."

Notes From Sohn Conference New York 2016: Druckenmiller, Robbins, Einhorn & More

The 2016 Sohn Conference New York just concluded and featured top hedge fund managers sharing investment ideas in order to benefit the Sohn Conference Foundation which is dedicated to the treatment and cure of pediatric cancer and childhood diseases.  Here's the takeaways:


Notes From Sohn Conference New York 2016


Larry Robbins (Glenview Capital): “Get a Grip.” Theme was stocks can be a bumpy ride for investors, and hedge funds have taken a lot of hits in the press, but if you expect them to not be short-term traders, then don’t judge them by their short-term records.   He talked his book; claiming that fundamental investing is not dead.   He is long: VCA (WOOF) – Veternarian hospital, multiple has compressed as earnings have grown and “There is no Obamacare for Veternarian hospitals.” Also pitched his longstanding holding of Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO).  Yes, it has FX issues, but it has EPS growth.  Pitched Lab Corp (LH) as well: hit by fears of new technology, but Theranos story shows that it’s not that easy to come up with new technology. On CBS (CBS): the viewing model is changing, with over-the-top (OTT), but content still has value.   Flextronics (FLEX): they got out of the low value business, but still grew revenue 3% and EPS 15% yet their P/E is only 8.5x.  The stock fell in February 19% and nobody knows why. Abbvie (ABBV): has a pipeline, Humira has IP protection, and biosimilars will take time to develop. Brookdale Senior Living (BKD): earning less, but still, oversold. Talked about Anthem (ANTM): 1.     Managed care is still a good business  2.     Cigna (CI) merger could lead to 20% accretion  3.     ANTM vs ESRX contract repricing spat could lead to more earnings  4.     Market pricing says deal breaks, he doesn’t think it will.


Carson Block (Muddy Waters):  Famed short seller says, “No such thing as alchemy in banking” and touts Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK) as a short because they’ve done a lot of aggressive construction loans and acquisitions. Best case stock re-rates due to unsustainable EPS growth rate, worst case, balance sheet pressure.


John Khoury (Long Pond Capital):  Value oriented, private equity approach. Hyatt (H) long. Says 65% upside, and low leverage gives a floor to valuation.  Admits Pritzker family controls company but says they make good capital allocation decisions. Low end, leisure hotels most vulnerable to AirBnB threat.  Hyatt has more corporate, higher end, which is relatively insulated. Not making a bullish call on all hotel stocks.  Saying Hyatt since 2010 IPO, EBITDA is up 66%, shares up only 14% while they have bought back 20% of shares outstanding.    Uses SOTP to get $79 PT, 65% upside.


Chamath Palihapitiya (Social Capital):  Silicon Valley investor. Says Amazon (AMZN) is a multi-trillion monopoly in plain sight. Walked through e-Commerce, Amazon Web Services (AWS), says this is just the beginning, that Jeff Bezos will make good investment decisions. Says AWS is not understood by the Street and could be worth a lot more. (Seems like the AWS bull case is already widely touted by AMZN bulls?) Lots of potential losers as AWS scales.


Jeff Smith (Starboard Value): Activists. In 12 years they have replaced 162 board members at 50 companies. Likes Depomed (DEPO) long, pain medication, like Oxycontin, less abuse potential. Not taking price increases. Horizon Pharma (HZNP) tried to buy them, they refused to deal. Starboard has nominated a new board- sounds like a proxy battle is brewing.   Also like Westrock (WRK), merger of Mead WestVaco and Rock Tenn.  Sounds like a commodity business, but he says it is not, and it’s still cheap, at 4.9x 2017E EBITDA. Has $71 PT, almost a double from here.


Richard Deitz (VR Capital):  They do a lot of emerging markets stuff. He says long Greek banks and Greek treasury bonds.  Went through the sordid history of bailouts, and says now things are better, the banks are finally strong, may need one more round of recapitalizations.  141% upside, 34% IRR over next 3 years.


Stanley Druckenmiller (Duquesne Family Office): In a sentence: we have low rates, high multiples on stocks, high leverage, sell stocks and everything, buy gold.  Fed is out of control, encouraging borrowing, reckless behavior. China is out of control, just buy gold.


Jeff Gundlach (DoubleLine Capital): Comedy show, with art talk in the beginning.  In other words, his usual type of presentation. Says short XLU (utilities) long REM (mortgage REITs.)  REITS are priced at 0.88x p/book, with 11% dividend, Utilities are 1.9x p/book with 3% dividend, you earn 8% net and you can lever it up 100% and earn 15%, plus the two should converge. He mocked the “low volatility” equities and showed that even utilities have had 56% drawdowns in the past. His most incendiary statement was that Donald Trump would be President, and “he’s comfortable with debt.”


Zach Schreiber (PointState Capital): He is the man that pitched oil short 2 years ago, when it was $100 per barrel.   Long USD, short the Saudi currency, he says.  He made a compelling case for why Saudi is in an “unsustainable equilibria” with lavish unfunded entitlements, unsustainable debt, and not enough currency reserves to protect their peg. Other oil producers’ currencies are down 25- 45% vs the dollar- Mexico, Norway, Russia, for example, yet the Saudi currency is unchanged.  Only costs 1.5% to put this trade on and very asymmetric pay off.


Sohn Investment Contest Winner (Mark Grow, Columbia Business School):   DXCM, Dexcom short was the pitch. Insulin device maker (continuous glucose monitoring ~ CGM) which is facing impending competition and is unable to increase price as revenue per user declines. Says stock can drop in half.


Adam Fisher (Commonwealth Opportunity Capital):  Real estate background, now a Macro guy. Says short Japanese rates, long European rates. Very compelling case for how long JGBs that yield only 30 bps have nowhere to go but up. Even a move to 40 bps yield wipes out 10 years of return.  Says maximum return for bondholders is 9% return over 30 years - that is not a CAGR of 9%, that is a TOTAL of 9%!  Huge convexity in the trade.


David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital): He pitched Caterpillar (CAT) short, says company is NOT at trough earnings yet and the mining sector will never recover to the heights of the China boom.  No catalyst on the short, other than EPS growth expected to take longer than expected.  Then he pitched General Motors (GM) as a long, admitting that US business would drop off almost 20% but the currently money losing segments in Europe and Mexico could make up for the shortfall.  Long deck with lots of charts and cartoons as usual.  GM pitch rested on low P/E of 5.6x to increase despite US EBITDA to decline.


Jim Chanos (Kynikos Associates): Got a dig in on Tesla (TSLA), which he had said he was short earlier that day on TV.  He said Elon Musk had not enough production, not enough batteries, and now not enough executives, but he pulls production forward 2 years.  “What a showman,” he said. His pitch was a complicated one, talking about weakness in South Africa, and Nigeria, which led to a short of MTN group, a wireless carrier which is also struggling with subscriber growth and declining average revenue per user (ARPU).  At $20B EV, this is a big company that he says is not cheap.

PointState Capital Starts Amaya Position

Zach Schreiber's hedge fund firm PointState Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Amaya (AYA).  Per the filing, PointState now owns 8.76% of the company with over 11.66 million shares.

This is a newly disclosed equity stake for the firm as they did not report ownership at the end of the first quarter.  The filing was made due to activity on June 11th.

Per Yahoo Finance, Amaya "provides technology-based solutions, products, and services for global gaming and interactive entertainment industries worldwide. It operates through two segments, Business-to- Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B)."

Robin Hood Investors Conference 2014: Summary of Stock Picks

The 2014 Robin Hood Conference took place over the past two days in New York where hedge fund managers presented their latest investment ideas to benefit the Robin Hood Foundation which fights poverty.  Julia La Roche of Business Insider tweeted tidbits from the event and here's an aggregation of them all.


Stock Picks From Robin Hood Investors Conference 2014


David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital): long SunEdison (SUNE), Greek banks like Alpha and Piraeus (via warrants).  Short French debt.

David Tepper (Appaloosa Management): short the Euro.

Larry Robbins (Glenview Capital): long Community Health (CYH), Realogy (RLGY), VCA (WOOF), Fidelity National Financial (FNF)

Dan Loeb (Third Point): long Amgen (AMGN) and has talked to management

Paul Tudor Jones (Tudor Investment Corp): Thinks commodities will be a mess until 2020, likes US stocks.

Jim Chanos (Kynikos Associates): Short Petrobras

Scott Ferguson (Sachem Head): Long Comcast (CMCSA).  He previously worked at Ackman's Pershing Square.

Keith Meister (Corvex Capital): Long Crown Castle International (CCI), also long Allergan (AGN).

Zach Schreiber (PointState Capital): ex-Duquesne guy, used to work with Stan Druckenmiller.  Long Cheniere Energy (LNG).

Nehal Chopra (Tiger Ratan Capital): long Charter Communications (CHTR)

Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures): Venture Capital, not equities but insinuated he'd be short Netflix (NFLX), Amazon (AMZN), and eBay (EBAY).

Tom Wagner (Knighthead Capital): long American Airlines (AAL)

Matthew Sidman (Three Bays Capital): long Churchill Downs (CHDN)

Ricky Sandler (Eminence Capital): long Telefonica Brasil (VIV) and eBay (EBAY)

Traci Lerner (Chesapeake Partners): long American Airlines (AAL), Gencorp (GY) and Eagle Materials (EXP)

Whitney Tilson (Kase Capital): long Sodastream (SODA) and Micron (MU).  Short Lumber Liquidators (LL) and Exact Sciences (EXAS)

Ivy Zelman (Zelman Associates): long homebuilders, Lennar (LEN), Pulte (PHM), Toll (TOL), as well as Fortune Home & Security (FBHS) and Mohawk (MHK).

Bill Eigen (JPMorgan): Short bonds to play volatility

Nathaniel August (Mangrove Partners): Short Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), long Fortress Investment Group (FIG)

Oleg Nodelman (EcoR1 Capital): long Clovis (CLVS)

Amish Mehta (SQN Investors): long Blucora (BCOR)

Sohn Conference Notes New York 2014: Einhorn, Tudor Jones, Shumway, Laffont & More

Below are notes from the 19th annual Sohn Investment Conference in New York, produced in partnership with Bloomberg LINK.  As always, top hedge fund managers pitched their latest investment ideas to benefit pediatric cancer research.  Here's this year's edition.


Sohn Investment Conference Notes: New York 2014

David Einhorn (Greenlight Capital): Short Athena Health

Bill Ackman (Pershing Square): On GSE's Fannie/Freddie

Philippe Laffont (Coatue Management): Long Liberty Global

Chris Shumway (Shumway Capital): Short the CNH, long Moody's

Larry Robbins (Glenview Capital): Long Humana, WellPoint, Monsanto

Paul Tudor Jones (Tudor Investment Corp): On the macro environment

Michael Novogratz (Fortress Investment): The case for Brazil

James Grant (Grant's Interest Rate Observer): On Russia and Gazprom

Jeff Gundlach (DoubleLine): Short homebuilders

Zach Schreiber (PointState Capital): Long refiners Valero & Marathon

Mariko Gordon (Daruma Capital): 3 long ideas

Dan Ariely (Duke University): On the psychology of money

Investment Contest Winner: Michael Guichon: long Fiat


And if you missed it earlier, we also posted up notes from the Next Wave Sohn Conference.  This was the mini-conference that took place before the main event where emerging managers pitched their latest ideas.

Zach Schreiber Long Refiners Valero & Marathon: Sohn Conference Presentation

We're posting up notes from the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, produced in partnership with Bloomberg LINK.  Next up is Zach Schreiber of PointState Capital and talked about how he expects crude oil prices to fall.  He thinks the refiners benefit and pitched Valero (VLO) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC).


Zach Schreiber's Sohn Conference Presentation

Stanley Druckenmiller gave him over half of his capital after he retired from Duquesne Capital.

IDEA: Short WTI/Long US Refiners.

Valero (VLO), Marathon Petroleum (MPC). They believe WTI crude will drop.  US oil production is growing very fast- same shale as the NG guys did.  US production will grow 1M bpd per year in 2014, 2015. 

Most everyone thinks WTI goes a lot higher, $33T long. Swelling inventories of Cushing crude.   There is a crude export ban, so they have to refine it.

Gulf coast refineries are maxed out at 96% utilization.  Can't import less, because of politics. Cash on cash IRRs are still high at these prices.  Long VLO, MPC.  10-11% FCF yields.  0.4x Debt to EBITDA.

Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the 2014 Sohn Investment Conference.