See What Top Hedge Funds Have Been Buying: New Q1 Issue Released Today

The brand new Q1 2014 issue of our premium publication, Hedge Fund Wisdom, was just released today.  Subscribers please login at www.hedgefundwisdom.com to download it.


Inside The New Issue

- The latest portfolios of 25 top hedge funds:  See the latest positions from David Tepper, Steve Mandel, Seth Klarman, John Paulson, and many more.

- In-depth equity analysis of 2 stocks:  Hedge funds bet big on these 2 stocks recently. Play catch-up quickly with detailed bull and bear case analysis.

- New consensus buy/sell section: Top 5 new buys, top 5 sells, top 5 additions, top 5 reductions.  Each list shows the most popular stocks among top managers.

- Expert commentary on each fund's moves:  We've been tracking these funds for over 6 years and explain the quick thesis behind some more of their trades.

- 1 convenient document (93 pages):  All the latest hedge fund data aggregated in one place to save you time. Search the PDF for your favorite manager or stocks with ease.



To Read The New Issue, Sign Up Below

1 Year Subscription (4 issues, save 20% with this option): $299.99 per year

Quarterly Subscription: $89.99 per quarter

Want to pay by check or soft dollar account?  Email us: info@hedgefundwisdom.com

Capitalize For Kids Investors Conference in Toronto: Ainslie, Lasry, Robbins, Dinan & More

Today we're proud to introduce the Capitalize for Kids Investors Conference that will take place October 23-24 at Arcadian Court in Toronto, Canada.  This is the first major conference of its kind in Canada so it's a great opportunity for those of you based there.

Their goal is to annually raise over $1 million for the Hospital for Sick Children.  This year they'll be raising capital for the Centre for Brain and Mental Health.  To learn more about the conference, head to the Capitalize for Kids website.


Speakers List

- Lee Ainslie, Maverick Capital
- Marc Lasry, Avenue Capital
- Larry Robbins, Glenview Capital
- Jamie Dinan, York Capital
- Jeff Smith, Starboard Value
- Steve Shapiro, GoldenTree Asset Management
- Jody LaNasa, Serengeti Asset Management
- Jacob Doft, Highline Capital
- Michael Thompson, BHR Capital
- Brian Zied, Charter Bridge Capital
- Frank Brosens, Taconic Capital
- Evan Vanderveer, Vanshap Capital
- Jeff Hales, Alignvest Capital
- Scott Ferguson, Sachem Head Capital
- Chuck Akre, Akre Capital
- Guy Gottfried, Rational Capital
- Sahm Adrangi, Kerrisdale Capital
- John Thiessen, Vertex One

As you can see, this event is absolutely loaded with quality speakers in order to benefit the Hospital.  In addition to the conference, if you join the cause you will also receive actionable investment ideas from several research partners throughout the year.  They include Horizon Kinetics, Veritas Investment Research, Voyant Advisors and many more.

Embedded below is the flyer for the event:



To hear investment ideas from these hedge fund managers, register for the event by clicking here. It should be a great conference benefiting a great cause.

NYU Stern Evaluation Investment Newsletter: Marc Lasry Interview

NYU Stern's student-run investment newsletter Evaluation is out with its second issue.  This time around, they focus on distressed investing with interviews with Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry, as well as bankruptcy expert Dr. Ed Altman, among others.

Also featured are investment pitches from the Stern Investment Idea contest.  Ideas include long Urban Outfitters (URBN), short Ulta Salon (ULTA), long Apple (AAPL), long Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI), long Wisdom Tree (WETF), long Amerco (UHAL), and long FTI Consulting (FCN).

Embedded below is the second edition of NYU Stern's Evaluation investment newsletter:



If you missed it, we posted NYU Stern's inaugural issue here as well.

Marcato Capital Files 13D on Life Time Fitness

Mick McGuire's hedge fund firm Marcato Capital Management has filed a 13D with the SEC on Life Time Fitness (LTM).  This is a brand new position for the hedge fund and they now own 7.2% of the company with over 2.9 million shares.

The filing was made due to activity on May 12th.  The activist investor included the typical boilerplate in the 13D and didn't outline any specific plans at this time.

Marcato's position is comprised of various stock options as they have calls referencing an aggregate of over 1.7 million shares with an exercise price of $30 and expire in July 2014.  They also sold put options for the same underlying amount of shares with the same strike and expiration date.  They've also entered into swaps.

Their trading activity log shows they were buying stock at the end of March around $47.80, the end of April around $47.74 and in the middle of may around $48.45.

Per Google Finance, Life Time Fitness is "operates multi-use sports and athletic, professional fitness, family recreation and spa centers in a resort-like environment."

For more on this hedge fund, check out Marcato's presentation on Sotheby's & Dillards.

50% Discount to the Value Investing Congress: Only 275 Seats Available

The 10th annual Value Investing Congress will take place on September 8 & 9 in New York City.  This year, they're limiting attendance to only 275 people, so if you want to attend you'll have to sign up fast. 

*** We're pleased to offer readers a special discount: over 50% off.  Click here to register and use discount code: MARKETFOLLY

This discount expires on June 24th, but don't wait until then to sign up because there's so few seats this year and it will sell out quickly.

Speakers List

- Leon Cooperman, Omega Advisors
- Jeffrey Smith, Starboard Value
- Alex Roepers, Atlantic Investment Management
- Carson Block, Muddy Waters Research
- Guy Gottfried, Rational Investment Group
- Sahm Adrangi, Kerrisdale Capital
- Whitney Tilson, Kase Capital
- David Hurwitz, SC Fundamental
- Michael Kao, Akanthos Capital
- John Lewis, Osmium Partners
- Tim Eriksen, Eriksen Capital
- Cliff Remily, Northwest Priority Capital
- And More Speakers Will Be Announced Soon
 
Also, the press is not being invited to the event, so if you don't want to miss out on the latest investment ideas from the above hedge fund managers, be sure to attend.

Discount Code

To take advantage of the discount for our readers, enter the discount code: MARKETFOLLY
Sign up with this link to secure one of the few seats available

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 5/14/14

Dream Big: on the Brazilian Trio behind 3G Capital [Amazon]

On investment process [Dasan]

Predicting the present with Google Trends [Berkeley]

A look at Yahoo: a puzzle, a mystery and an enigma [Aswath Damodaran]

The unlikely ascent of Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder [NYTimes]

Recession-baby millennials shun stocks after US slump [Bloomberg]

Families are dining out a lot less [RestFinance]

The future of monetising television [TheGuardian]

What happens when the cable TV money dries up? [Sports on Earth]

Africa growth outlook [WEForum]

Macau jackpot turns to bust for stock investors amid rout [Bloomberg]

Murdoch's $14 billion TV plan sets up showdown with Malone [Bloomberg]

AT&T's deal strategy raises questions [Dealbook]

How dumb are fund investors? [WSJ]

Post Office says it lost $1.9 billion in quarter [NYTimes]

Tiger Global Discloses Tuniu Position

Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan's hedge fund Tiger Global has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Tuniu (TOUR).  Per the filing, Tiger Global has revealed a new position in TOUR with 3.6 million shares. 

This represents a 10.1% ownership stake in the company.  The filing was required due to activity on May 9th when the company completed its initial public offering (IPO).

In other recent activity, Tiger Global also started a Zillow stake.

Per Google Finance, Tuniu is "an online leisure travel company. The Company offers a selection of packaged tours, including organized tours and self-guided tours, as well as travel-related services for leisure travelers. It offers packaged tours sourced from over 3,000 travel suppliers, covering over 70 countries, as well as all popular tourist attractions in China. The Company’s product portfolio consists of over 100,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) of organized tours, over 100,000 SKUs of self-guided tours, and tickets for over 1,000 domestic and overseas tourist attractions. Its online platform, which consists of its tuniu.com Website and mobile platform, provides comprehensive product and travel information through user-friendly interfaces to enable leisure travelers to plan their travels and search for itineraries. Its online platform contains photos, information and recommendations for all destinations it covers."

Farallon Capital Discloses Gleacher Stake

Andrew Spokes' hedge fund firm Farallon Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding Gleacher (GLCH).  Per the filing, the hedge fund has disclosed a 7.3% ownership stake in Gleacher with 451,000 shares.

The filing was made due to portfolio activity on May 2nd.  The company's board of directors has approved a liquidation of assets.

Per Google Finance, Gleacher is "an investment bank that provides corporate and institutional clients with financial advisory services, including merger and acquisition, restructuring, recapitalization, and strategic alternative analysis. Gleacher offers a range of products through its Investment Banking, Mortgage Backed/Asset Backed & Rates (MBS/ABS & Rates), Corporate Credit and ClearPoint divisions. It also provides capital raising, research-based investment analysis, and securities brokerage services, and, through the Company's ClearPoint Funding, Inc. subsidiary (ClearPoint), engages in residential mortgage lending."

Paulson & Co Adds To Mallinckrodt (MNK) Stake

John Paulson's hedge fund firm Paulson & Co has filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding their position in Mallinckrodt (MNK).  Per the filing, Paulson acquired 786,207 shares on  May 7th, 8th, and 9th at prices between $73.0131 and $76.8431. 

After these transactions, Paulson now owns over 6.7 million MNK shares.  For a reference point, they owned 5.6 million shares at the end of 2013 per their 13F filing.  The hedge fund was recently granted an option to increase its stake in MNK to 20%.

Mallinkckrodt has been one of the many pharmaceutical plays involved in M&A lately.  After acquiring Cadence Pharmaceuticals, they recently announced an agreement to acquire the controversial Questcor Pharma (QCOR).  Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners also has a sizable stake in MNK as well.

Per Google Finance, Mallinckrodt is "a global specialty pharmaceuticals company. The Company develops, manufactures, markets and distributes both branded and generic specialty pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and diagnostic imaging agents. The Company uses its API products in the manufacture of its generic pharmaceuticals and also sells them to other pharmaceutical companies. The Company operates through two segments: Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Global Medical Imaging."

You can view other portfolio activity from Paulson & Co here.

ValueAct Capital Acquires More Microsoft Shares

Jeff Ubben's hedge fund firm ValueAct Capital has filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding their stake in Microsoft (MSFT).  Per the filing, ValueAct has acquired over 2.9 million shares on May 8th and 9th at prices ranging from $39.49 to $39.59.

This comes in addition to the 66.8 million shares ValueAct already owns.

Recently, we highlighted that ValueAct's Mason Morfit stepped down from Valeant Pharmaceuticals' board and the hedge fund will also likely be reducing their stake.

Morfit is now on Microsoft's board as they look to push the company in the right direction after new CEO Satya Nadella has replaced Steve Ballmer.

Per Google Finance, Microsoft is "engaged in developing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services. The Company operates in five segments: Windows & Windows Live Division (Windows Division), Server and Tools, Online Services Division (OSD), Microsoft Business Division (MBD), and Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD). The Company’s products include operating systems for personal computers (PCs), servers, phones, and other intelligent devices; server applications for distributed computing environments; productivity applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games, and online advertising."

Larry Robbins' Slideshow Presentation From Sohn Conference: HUM, WLP, MON

We posted up notes from the 2014 Sohn Conference in New York if you haven't seen them.  At the event, Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital pitched longs of Humana (HUM), WellPoint (WLP), and Monsanto (MON).  The conference has recently released his slideshow presentation and it is embedded below:



Be sure to check out the rest of the Sohn conference notes here.

David Einhorn's Slideshow Presentation on AthenaHealth From Sohn Conference

If you missed it, we recently posted up notes from the 2014 Sohn Conference in New York.  There, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital unveiled a short of Athena Health (ATHN).  The conference has released his full slideshow presentation now and it is embedded below:



Be sure to check out the rest of the hedge fund pitches from Sohn here.

What We're Reading ~ Hedge Fund Links 5/9/14

The rich list: highest earning hedge fund managers of the past year [II Alpha]

Hedge fund managers paid too much? [Pension Pulse]

Why do investors love large hedge funds? [All About Alpha]

On navigating a big ship [Research Puzzle]

The case for alternative mutual funds [HF Intelligence]

UK dominates European hedge fund assets by wide margin [P&I]

Does big money hurt hedge fund returns? [Barrons]

Rising interest rates will hurt these hedge funds [Barrons]

Greenlight asked SEC for delay on disclosure of Micron stake [Dealbook]

FPA's Romick hoards cash, sees few opportunities [Reuters]

Sotheby's, Loeb end fight over board [Dealbook]

High frequency trading hurts hedge funds [Marketwatch]

"My time on the sell side" [A Wealth of Common Sense]

ValueAct Steps Down From Valeant Board, To Trim Position

ValueAct Capital filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding their position in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX).  Per the filing, they note that Mason Morfit will be stepping down from the board of directors.

The key takeaway here is that ValueAct says they're doing this in order to trim their position size because they have a "practice of reducing portfolio weightings in companies where we no longer serve on the board of directors."

Their current stake is valued at approximately $2.5 billion and the letter specifically references that they'd like to still maintain "more than $1 billion in shares."  As far as the timetable of their sales, the letter hints that they might choose to sell some of their stake "later this year."


Mason Morfit's Letter to Valeant

Here's the full letter of his resignation:

"Dear Mike, 

I am hereby resigning effective today as a director of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. 

As you know, ValueAct Capital has been a shareholder of Valeant Pharmaceuticals since 2006 and I have been a member of the board of directors since 2007. My team and I are proud to have worked with you and to have been a part of tremendous value creation for all shareholders. As I have told you, after seven years on the board of directors, and with my new position on the board of directors of Microsoft, the time has come for me to reallocate my time to other board work. The company is in an extremely strong position and I feel good about the future of Valeant. 

Due to the company?s strategy, there have been very long periods during which we have not been able to buy and sell shares. Most recently, ValueAct Capital has been restricted from selling any shares in Valeant since June 2013, during which time the stock has risen from $85 to $135. Beginning in February 2014, I expressed to you and the board my desire to manage down this position in our fund (currently approximately $2.5 billion out of our $14 billion in assets under management). By resigning today, with the Allergan transaction in the public domain and with Valeant?s earnings report later this week, this will create an opportunity for ValueAct Capital to sell if we choose (of course depending on stock price) later this year. Serving out the remaining term of my board service, could potentially create additional delays and complications, particularly if Allergan enters into negotiations with Valeant. 

To reiterate, we are making a portfolio management decision, not a decision about Valeant?s fundamental business, future performance or the merits of the Allergan deal.  ValueAct Capital has a practice of reducing portfolio weightings in companies where we no longer serve on the board of directors. We have done this consistently since our inception in 2000. That being said, after my resignation we still plan to be large Valeant shareholders for some time. We currently plan to hold more than $1 billion in shares and Valeant should remain one of our top positions. I wish you, your team and my board colleagues all the best and look forward to many more years of extraordinary performance.  Sincerely,  /s/ G. Mason Morfit"


For more on ValueAct, head to Jeff Ubben on Valeant in his recent interview as well as Mason Morfit's lecture on activist investing.

Glenview Capital Boosts Flextronics Stake

Larry Robbins' hedge fund firm Glenview Capital has filed an amended 13G with the SEC regarding their position in Flextronics (FLEX).  They've disclosed they own 11.86% of the company with 70.1 million shares.

The filing was made due to activity on May 5th and this marks an increase of 9.95 million shares since the end of 2013 when they owned 60.1 million shares.

If you missed it, Larry Robbins just pitched ideas at the Sohn Conference as well.

Per Google Finance, Flextronics is "is a global provider of global supply chain solutions, through which the Company designs, build, ship and services a packaged electronic product to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the markets, which include High Reliability Solutions (HRS), which is consists of its medical, automotive, defense and aerospace businesses; High Velocity Solutions (HVS), which includes its mobile devices business, including smart phones, and consumer electronics, including game consoles, high-volume computing business, including notebook personal computing (PC), tablets and printers; Industrial and Emerging Industries (IEI), which is consists of its household appliances, equipment, and industries businesses, and Integrated Network Solutions (INS), which includes its telecommunications infrastructure, data networking, connected home, and server and storage businesses."

What We're Reading ~ Analytical Links 5/7/14

Charlie Munger's essay on wisdom as it relates to investment management [Ycombinator]

A pitch on Altisource Portfolio Solutions [Value Venture]

Is Barnes & Noble the next Gamestop? [MicroFundy]

Notes on the Outsider CEOs [Student of Value]

Alibaba files to go public in the US [Yahoo Finance]

All the western companies you'd have to combine to get something like Alibaba [Quartz]

US home ownership rate falls to lowest since 1995 [Bloomberg]

The financial vulnerability of Americans [House of Debt]

Why has student debt increased so much? [Vox]

Tax avoidance: the Irish inversion [FT]

Pay TV field could shrink with AT&T interest in DirecTV [LA Times]

As Netflix resists, most firms try to befriend Comcast [NYTimes]

On online video ads [NYTimes]

On the world of peer to peer lending [NYTimes]

Warren Buffett didn't belch at Coke pay plan [Bloomberg]

Philippe Jabre Interview: Columbia Business School's Graham & Doddsville

Columbia Business School is out with the Spring 2014 issue of its Graham & Doddsville newsletter.  In it, they interview Philippe Jabre of Jabre Capital as well as Arnold Van Den Berg and Jim Brilliant of Century Management.  It also profiles H. Kevin Byun of Denali Investors and Eric Rosenfeld of Crescendo Partners.

Additionally, pitches from the Pershing Square Challenge are presented.  MBA students presented longs of Allegion (ALLE), Carnival (CCL), Clean Harbors (CLH), Naspers (JSE:NPN) and a short of Cablevision (CVC).

The full issue is below, but here's some select quotes from Jabre's interview:

Jabre talks about starting his own firm and notes that,

"Before you start a  hedge fund you have to  follow the right steps. I  always tell people it's the  same as if you are a doctor,  architect, or lawyer opening  a practice. I first joined a  bank, then after ten years I  joined Lehman Brothers.  Then, with a group of four  partners, we spun off from  Lehman Brothers and  created GLG. And then  after that, I created my own  fund. You follow the steps  so people will follow you.    I remember after business  school I wanted to create  my own fund at age 25. My  father told me if you want  to lose money, go lose  money at other people's  expense. You can't become  a fund manager unless  you’ve lost a lot of money  and survived. So JabCap was  a normal evolution when I  started it seven years ago. A  lot of clients followed  because I had a very good  track record at my prior  funds over the previous  fifteen years and that made  it easier. But you need a  track record and you need  to have clients. The barriers  to entry are very high today  and what people look for is  a track record and the  experience of managing  money unsupervised. And  that's a very difficult concept that you learn with time."


Jabre on opportunities: "So the key thing is to find  things that have done nothing for ages and  suddenly there is an event  that you need to be the first  to understand or appreciate.  And this is where you have a huge opportunity to outperform."


Embedded below is the Spring 2014 issue of CBS' Graham & Doddsville newsletter:



For more from Columbia Business School, be sure to check out their interview with Maverick Capital's Lee Ainslie in a previous issue as well as their interview with Li Lu.

Soros Fund Discloses Sinclair IS Pharma and Spansion Stakes

George Soros' family office Soros Fund Management has disclosed two new positions recently.


Sinclair Pharma

First, Soros has revealed a new stake in London listed Sinclair IS Pharma (LON:SPH).  Due to trading on May 2nd, Soros now owns 5.02% of Sinclair's voting rights.

Other notable holders of Sinclair Pharma include the Toscafund which was set up by Martin Hughes and is now managed by Johnny de la Hay with 26.8% of voting rights and Lansdowne Partners with 11.03%.

Per Google Finance, Sinclair IS Pharma is "a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on treatments in dermatology, wound care, oncology support and critical care through surface technology and delivery systems. It has presence in five European markets and a marketing partner network across developed and emerging markets."


Spansion (CODE)

Second, Soros Fund has started a new position in Spansion (CODE).  Per a 13G filed with the SEC, Soros has revealed they own 5.11% of the company with over 3 million shares.  This is a brand new position and the filing was required due to activity on April 25th.

Per Google Finance, Spansion is "a designer, manufacturer and developer of Flash memory semiconductors. The Company focuses on a portion of the Flash memory market that relates to flash memory solutions for microprocessors, controllers and other programmable semiconductors that run applications in a range of electronic systems. These electronic systems include automotive and industrial, computing and communications, consumer and gaming. In addition to flash memory products, the Company assist its customers in developing and prototyping their designs by providing software and hardware development tools, drivers and simulation models for system-level integration. Spansion’s products are designed to accommodate various voltage, interface and density requirements for a range of applications and customer platforms. Spansion's product designs are based on its two-bit-per-cell MirrorBit technology and floating gate NOR flash memory technology."

For more, check out George Soros' best investment advice.

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.

David Einhorn Short Athena Health: 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 David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital who pitched Athena Health (ATHN) as a short.


David Einhorn's Sohn Conference Presentation

Short a "Bubble Basket" as mentioned in Greenlight's Q1 letter

Deep dive into one of the companies without disclosing the others.

Athena Health (ATHN): Could fall 80% or more from recent peak. Provides software, services for practice management, claim processing.  Stock up big since the IPO.   He plays a video of selected clips of Jonathan Bush, the CEO which makes him looks really loopy, spouting off a bunch of buzzwords: SaaS, mobile, social, crowdsourcing, platform, monetize.

Have to believe revenues compound 18% per year for 15 years for it to be worth what it trades at today.  More clips showing the CEO who really seems foolish. They aren't really a software company, they are doing the work, reading the faxes, scanning documents, and storing them.

Should really compare this to ADP - business process outsourcing industry.  These businesses have 6.7%  to 14% operating margins.   Base case drops to $43 when you take out revs/doc which is too high, and margins too high.

Then he compares to EPIC which is winning in this space.  They are the standard - not the single digit cloud e-health records. (EHRs) More clips of the CEO that make him look a bit like a lunatic, almost like a parody.  Industry consolidation will shrink the market for ATHN, and they may lose more share to EPIC. 

Bubble stocks: best reason to own them is they keep going back up.  When they stop going up, they become falling knives.  There is a huge gap between this and when value investors will be interested in them.   Then he closes with a clip of the CEO bragging that they are trading at 21,000 times earnings, and that they are not worth that and that he forgot the question.

CRM, CNCR, ULTI, N, VEEV, WDAY, NOW were all on Einhorn's slide - maybe his bubble basket?  Basically all cloud/SaaS stocks.

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