Hedge Fund Manager Jon Jacobson’s Top Stock Picks

Highfields Capital Management was co-founded by Jonathon Jacobson and Richard Grubman in 1998. About a third of the fund’s initial capital of $1.5 billion came from Harvard Management; Jacobson had previously worked at the endowment. Grubman has since retired, but Jacobson is still managing the fund which has since grown to over $10 billion in assets under management.

Jacobson has admitted that the holy grail of value investing- a good company trading at a cheap price- is very elusive in the modern financial markets, even with the resources of a hedge fund research team. As a result he claims that Highfields end up looking at unattractive businesses which carry low valuations because the market expects that poor performance to continue. If the price is low enough, or if the company’s struggles have been due to problems which are getting weaker, then it might be a buy.

Considering that the hedge fund tends to manage a moderately concentrated portfolio- in its most recent 13F filing, the six largest positions were responsible for about 40% of the reported investments- it seems to us that the fund doesn’t need to find too many “close enough” picks to match its large size as long as it can invest high amounts of capital. The smallest of these six largest positions was over $350 million. In turn, the large size of the positions and the concentration of the portfolio generally results in fairly long holding periods for Highfields; Jacobson has claimed that a holding period can be two to three years. Between September 2011 and September 2012 the same three stocks have held the top three slots in the fund’s 13F portfolio according to our database of filings, and two more of the most recent top six had Highfields report a position of at least $200 million a year earlier. Read on for a quick discussion of the five largest holdings in Jacobson’s most recent reported portfolio or see the full list of stock picks:

News Corp (NWSA) Highfields owned about 32 million shares of News Corp, which is planning to split its business into two next year. Partly because of the opportunities inherent in this special situation- management of spun out or broken up companies can sometimes create shareholder value by being more focused on operations- News Corp was one of the most popular services stocks among hedge funds. The stock trades at 23 times trailing earnings, suggesting that the market currently expects it to improve.

SLM Corp (SLM) Student loan manager Sallie Mae, which is also a favorite of billionaire Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors (check out Cooperman's stock picks), was another of Jacobson’s top stock picks with a position of 46 million shares. The stock is cheap at trailing and forward P/Es of 8 and 7, respectively, but investors have at least some reason to worry about student loan debt- this is a classic case of an unattractive business at a low price.

DIRECTV (DTV) The fund cut its stake in DirecTV by 16% but still owned about 11 million shares at the end of September. Revenue and earnings growth was moderate last quarter compared to the third quarter of 2011, and the trailing P/E is 12. It might be a value candidate. DirecTV was one of Warren Buffett’s top ten stocks last quarter as Berkshire Hathaway reported owning almost 30 million shares (find more of Buffett's favorite stocks).

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). Jacobson increased the fund’s holdings of the megabank by 41% between July and September to more than 10 million shares. JPMorgan Chase trades at a small discount to book value and at 8 times consensus earnings for 2013, which we think is quite cheap. JPMorgan Chase joined fellow big banks Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America Corp (BAC), and Citigroup (C) in our list of the ten most popular stocks among hedge funds.

Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (CNQ). The $31 billion market cap integrated oil and gas company rounded out Highfields’ top five picks, and was the only one of the five where the fund had not had a position worth over $200 million a year ago. The stock has fallen 23% in the last year, and earnings were down strongly last quarter versus a year earlier. It is valued at 12 times forward earnings estimates.

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Insider Monkey is a finance website that provides free insider trading and hedge fund stock-holdings data. It tracks more than 400 equity hedge funds. Follow it on Twitter @insidermonkey

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Donald Yacktman - The Yacktman Fund

In this article we will take a closer look at Donald Yacktman's stock picks. We generally follow hedge funds, but we also keep a close eye on successful mutual fund managers. Donald Yacktman has been very successful over the last decade. However, Yacktman’s eponymous flagship fund, the Yacktman Fund, underperformed the S&P 500 by 4.8% in Q1. Below, we take a look at The Yacktman Fund’s Top 5 Holdings:

PepsiCo (PEP) is Yacktman’s largest holding at 9.4% of the portfolio. PEP reported Q1 earnings last week. Sales were up 4% y-o-y, exhibiting a favorable pricing mix but EPS was down 7% y-o-y due to rising commodity costs. The international business is growing very nicely, particularly in emerging markets—13% growth in Brazil, 21% growth in India, and 33% growth in Saudi Arabia. In the emerging markets space, we highlight PEP’s strategic alliance with Tingyi-Asahi Beverages, which was finalized late last month. We continue to share Yacktman’s enthusiasm for PEP as a long-term investment and expect the company to return $6 billion to shareholders in 2012, including share repurchases of $3 billion and dividends of $3.3 billion. PEP raised it dividend to 4% annually in February and has the financial strength to increase it in the future. We find the company relatively cheap with future income potential. Value investors Boykin Curry and Bill Miller had large positions in PepsiCo at the end of last year too (see Bill Miller’s latest stock picks).

News Corp (NWS) comprises 8.1% of the portfolio and is also held by Seth Klarman, Chris Hohn, and John Armitage. We think that NWS is a compelling value investment. Its organic growth rates and future prospects exceed its competitors and the stock trades at less than 60% of its total asset value. Management has renewed a share repurchase plan, showing commitment to returning capital to shareholders. Most importantly, we see the company’s move to shake up its revenue mix as an opportunity for multiple expansion. Ten years ago 42% of its operating income came from the print business and only 11% from the cable networks business. NWS has done a one eighty and today, print contributes 12% of operating income while cable networks contributes 58%. Do not forget to throw in TV, which we identify as a growth business for NWS. Given low valuation (CY12 EV/EBITDA of 5.4x versus comparable companies of 7.6x), share buybacks, and growth prospects, we are very positive on the stock.

Procter & Gamble (PG) is the fund’s third largest position comprising 7.1%. PG also reported earnings last week. Its Q3 presented some concerning data, especially regarding outlook. PG reported EPS of $0.94, which was on the high end of previous guidance ($0.89 to $0.95). Management lowered guidance for Q4 by 14% from $0.95 to $0.99 down to $0.79 to $0.85. The company now expects to deliver FY12 core EPS of $3.82-3.88 versus their prior guidance of $3.93 to $4.03. They are projecting organic sales growth of 4%, which we think is a bit high given the 3% figure they saw in Q3. The growth was primarily driven by pricing with flat volumes and negative mix. PG has been facing challenges with regard to slowing growth in developed markets and negative mix from its expansion into emerging markets with lower-tier product categories. Therefore, we are not quite as bullish as Yacktman, who commented that “the combination of predictability, quality, and valuation of companies like Procter & Gamble…is especially important in a time when we perceive many significant risks in the world.” Billionaires Ken Fisher, David E. Shaw, and Ken Griffin had large positions in Procter & Gamble (see Ken Fisher’s stock picks). 

Microsoft (MSFT) comprises 4.9% of the portfolio. This is a big year for new product releases for MSFT. Windows 8, Server 8, and Office 15 will be released. We believe that if all goes smoothly with the Windows 8 release, this will be long-term investors’ confidence. We do think that the current product portfolio remains competitive, especially the Window franchise and offers expansion opportunities into the enterprise space but note that the entertainment revenues missed expectations, the underperformance of which was glossed over given strong performance in other divisions. Nonetheless, MSFT’s real strength lies in its cash flow. Last quarter, it reported free cash flow of $8.8 billion, repurchased $1 billion of stock. We will be closely following consumer reactions and initial sales of the new products. Billionaire David Einhorn is very bullish about Microsoft. He laid out his investment thesis at last year’s Ira Sohn Conference (read Einhorn’s entire speech).

Cisco (CSCO) rounds out the top five picks at 4.4%. While we think that the US Enterprise and Small to Medium Sized Businesses’ (~40% of CSCO’s revenue) demand for networking equipment has been improving, we do not find it to be a compelling investment given lack of catalysts on the horizon. The company will probably be able to take some market share from Juniper and will benefit from the 10GbE switching upgrade cycle, but we believe the market has priced much of that in. Ultimately, the preference is to own CSCO when it sees orders growing markedly faster than revenues, but we expect orders and revenues to grow at comparable rates in the coming quarters. Partner Fund Management and Edinburgh Partners are the two most bullish hedge funds about Cisco.

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Billionaires’ Stock Picks Are Beating the Market Right Now

If you’ve been reading articles about hedge fund performance over the past three years, you’re probably thinking index funds are better options for investors. During the last quarter, an average hedge fund underperformed S&P 500 index ETFs by around 8 percentage points. This is a bit misleading though. Actually, equity hedge funds hedge around 50% of their exposure. It isn’t really appropriate to compare hedge fund returns to broad market indices that are 100% long at all times. Hedge funds have been able to outperform the market significantly over the past 5 years. Unfortunately, hedge fund managers took around 47% of their total returns as fees (read the details here). Despite the huge hedge fund fees, investors were still able to outperform the market by 2.5 percentage points per year.

We like hedge funds. We believe hedge fund managers are talented and that they deserve billions of dollars in fees. However, we don’t think it’s a smart move to directly hand over your hard earned dollars to hedge fund managers. This will only help them to become billionaires before you can even think about retirement. A better alternative is to imitate billionaire fund managers’ top stock picks. Insider Monkey constructed the Billionaire Hedge Fund Index last month and reported that this index was beating the market by 4.4 percentage points through the middle of March. Billionaire Hedge Fund Index continued its spectacular performance over the past three weeks. As of April 9^th the index is up 17% vs. 10.6% for the S&P 500 ETF. Billionaire fund managers’ top stock picks beat the market by 6.4 percentage points since the beginning of this year. Here are the top 5 stock picks:

1. Apple (AAPL) is the most popular stock among billionaire fund managers. Almost half of them had a large position in Apple at the end of December. Apple is also the most popular stock among other hedge fund managers (see the 10 most popular stocks). The stock gained 57% this year as of Apr 9th. Apple has been an obvious value play for a very long time. At the beginning of last year the market valued the stock as if it was a low growth utility stock. By the end of the summer, low growth utility stocks had even higher multiples than technology stocks like Apple and Microsoft (MSFT). Investing in Apple was really a no brainer. It is still very attractively priced. Billionaires Ken Griffin, David Einhorn, and Stephen Mandel are extremely bullish about the stock.

2. Google (GOOG) is the second most popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. The stock lost 2.3% as of Apr 9th. We are optimistic about Google as well. The stock’s 2013 forward PE ratio is less than 13. It is slightly more expensive than Apple but the stock is the undisputed leader of the search business. It is expected to increase its earnings by nearly 20% per year over the next few years. We expect that Google will outperform the market over the next five years. David E. Shaw, Chase Coleman, and Ken Fisher have large positions in Google.

3. El Paso Corp (EP) is the third most popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. Carl Icahn  hit the jackpot by investing more than a $1 billion before its merger with Kinder Morgan was announced. He had $1.9 billion in the stock at the end of December. This is a merger arbitrage play that returned 13.9% since the beginning of this year.

4. News Corp (NWSA) is the fourth popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. This is a conservative long-term play. The stock was a real bargain last summer. Billionaire fund managers were greedy when others were fearful. News Corp underperformed the market this year, returning 7.2% through April 9^th. Steven Cohen and John Paulson are among News Corp investors (see John Paulson’s stock picks).

5. Medco Health Solutions (MHS) is the fifth most popular stock. This is also a merger arbitrage play. The stock returned more than 25% this year until its merger with Express Scripts (ESRX) closed in early April.

As you can see hedge funds’ top 5 stock picks performed even better than the rest of their stock picks. These five stocks had an average return of more than 20%. Our billionaire hedge fund managers became billionaires because of their stock picks. Their recent performance shows that they still have their magic touch.

Source: Billionaire's Stock Picks Are Beating the Market Right Now Read More!

7 Stocks Billionaire Fund Managers Are Crazy About

Insider Monkey tracks nearly 400 hedge fund managers and prominent investors. Thirty nine of these fund managers are billionaires. Nowadays readers have access to websites that track the daily changes in billionaires’ wealth. We wanted to track the performance of billionaires’ topstock picks. By looking at our Billionaire Hedge Fund Index, investors may be able to decide whether it makes sense to imitate billionaires’ stock picks without paying them hefty fees. Warren Buffett, George Soros, John Paulson, Jim Simons, David Einhorn, Ray Dalio, and T. Boone Pickens are among the 39 billionaires we’re tracking. Billionaire fund managers’ top 30 stock picks returned 16.7% in 2012 as of March 16, vs. 12.3% gain in the S&P 500 ETF (SPY). Here are the top 7 stocks they’re crazy about:

1. Apple (AAPL) is the most popular stock among billionaire fund managers. Nearly half of them had a large position in Apple at the end of December. Apple is also the most popular stock among “ordinary” millionaire hedge fund managers (see the 10 most popular stocks). The stock gained 45% this year as of March 16^th. We have been extremely bullish about Apple since we started writing here at Trading Deck at the end of September. Apple was the most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of September as well. We have been telling you that technology stocks are extremely undervalued as a sector and Apple had single digit forward PE multiple at the time. Today we are still very optimistic about the stock. Its 2012 forward PE ratio is 13.5 which is still less than the market. This is a stock that is expected to increase its earnings by nearly 20% per year over the next 5 years. It should easily trade above $800 over the next couple of years. Ken Griffin had the largest position in Apple at the end of December.

2. Google (GOOG) is the second most popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. The stock had a disappointing performance so far in 2012, losing 3.2% as of March 16. We are optimistic about Google as well. The stock’s 2012 forward PE ratio is 17 which is more than 25% higher than that of Google’s. They have similar expected growth rates though. We think Google deserves a slight premium over Apple because it is less exposed to competition from other search engines. This is not a stock that will go up 50% this year but it should deliver healthy returns over the long run. Julian Robertson and his tiger cubs Stephen Mandel and Chase Coleman are the most bullish fund managers about Google. We should note that Chase Coleman has an excellent track record of picking winners in the internet space and he made more than $1 billion for his investors by betting on Facebook in its infancy (check out Chase Coleman’s other internet stocks).

3. El Paso Corp (EP) is the third most popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. Carl Icahn made a bundle in EP by investing more than a $1 billion before its merger with Kinder Morgan was announced. He had $1.9 billion invested in the stock at the end of December. The other fund managers were pursing El Paso as a merger arbitrage candidate. These stocks usually trade at a discount to their announced merger price because investors usually aren’t 100% certain that the merger will go through as planned. Billionaire hedge fund managers made 9.6% since the beginning of this year by correctly betting that El Paso – Kinder Morgan deal will go through.

4. News Corp (NWSA) is the fourth popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. When other investors were dumping News Corp shares because of the hacking scandal billionaire hedge fund managers were buying them. The stock recovered all of its loses last summer. It is also slightly outperforming the market this year. Paul Singer had the largest position in NWSA among the billionaires we are tracking.

5. Medco Health Solutions (MHS) is the fifth popular stock. This is also a merger arbitrage play. The stock returned 25.7% this year as of March 16. D. E. Shaw had more than $300 million invested in the stock.

6. Microsoft (MSFT) is the sixth most popular stock among billionaire hedge fund managers. Ken Fisher and David Einhorn had the largest stakes in the stock. Last May at the Ira Sohn Conference David Einhorn called for the resignation of Steve Ballmer and stated that Microsoft is significantly undervalued. The stock gained 38% since then (read the transcript of Einhorn’s presentation).

7. Wells Fargo (WFC) is the seventh most popular stock among billionaire fund managers. The stock’s 2012 gains are around 23.4%, ten percentage points more than the S&P 500 index. Warren Buffett has the largest stake in this banking giant at the end of December. There were 9 other billionaire fund managers with Wells Fargo positions.

 Insider Monkey has 30 stocks in its Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Index and these 30 stocks (see the entire list here) had an average return of more than 16% this year as of March 16. The top 7 stocks that we discussed above performed even better. Five of these seven stocks outperformed the market and they had an average return of 19.9%, vs. 12.3% for the SPY. It is too early to turn this into a trading strategy, but tracking this index is going to be more fun than tracking billionaires’ wealth every 15 minutes.

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Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Index

Insider Monkey sitesi billionaire hedge fund manager index adinda bir endeks tasarladi ve dolar milyarderi hedge fon yoneticilerinin en cok satin aldigi hisselerin performansini takip ediyor. Bu yilin ilk 2.5 ayinda milyarderlerin en cok sevdigi 30 sirket borsa endeksinin 4.4 puan uzerinde bir performans sergilemis.

Bu konuyla ilgili yaziya Billionaire Hedge Fund Index baslikli yazidan ulasabilirsiniz. Read More!

Best Hedge Funds 2012

We are do-it-yourself investors. Our favorite hedge funds are the ones that have outstanding long stock picks because we like to imitate these hedge fund managers and don’t want to pay the customary 2-and-20. Most hedge fund managers have more skill in picking long positions than shorting stocks, so we don’t really miss out much by not handing over our hard-earned dollars to super-rich hedge fund managers.

We track 375 hedge funds and prominent investors. Based on their long stock picks in their 13F disclosures we calculated the equal-weighted average return of each hedge fund since the beginning of the year. We limited our universe to 1000 stocks and required that each hedge fund had at least 5 picks. Here are the best hedge funds in 2012:

1. Eddie Lampert: Eddie Lampert’s 8 stock picks returned an average of 44.1%. This is amazing. Lampert’s most successful stock pick was Sears (SHLD). He not only bought these shares for his fund but he also bought them for his own account as an insider of the company. Lampert paid less than $30 per share for nearly 5 million shares of SHLD in early January. Is this illegal insider trading? We don’t think it is. This is a great example of profitable insider trading. Lampert knows his company better than all the outsiders who were writing Sears off in January. The stock closed above $75 on Friday. Lampert personally made more than 150% from his $150 million insider purchases.

Lampert’s other long positions in his portfolio were also very profitable. Seagate (STX) returned 67%, Genworth Financial gained 37%, and Gap Inc (GPS) returned 32%. Seven out of eight Lampert stocks managed to beat the market.

2. Bruce Berkowitz: Bruce Berkowitz is a contrarian investor with a lot of conviction. His bets paid off this year. Berkowitz’s 16 stock picks had an equal-weighted average return of 36%. He has more than $500 million invested in Sears too. He is also the most bullish fund manager about Bank of America (BAC) which returned 46% this year as of March 2^nd.

3. Michael Katz Glenrock Global Partners: Michael Katz is a relatively unknown hedge fund manager. Katz’s Glenrock Global Partners returned 9.6% since 2000 and managed to beat its benchmark, MSCI World Index, by 9.4 percentage points annually. “We are basically long-short global stockpickers with a value bias, and we also pay close attention to the big macro picture. On the long side, we go for what we think are deeply undervalued stocks with lots of upside that we can buy at liquidation values or less. On the short side, we go for highly priced stocks with poor fundamentals that the market hasn't focused on yet,” Katz told to Barron’s. So how did Katz do since the beginning of this year?

Katz’s 13 stock picks in large cap stocks gained 30.6% this year. His best performing picks were Cobalt International Energy (CIE), SunTrust Banks (STI), Citigroup (C), and Morgan Stanley (MS). CIE gained 97% whereas financial stocks returned between 25% and 30%.

4. John Hurley – Cavalry Asset Management: John Hurley knows how to fire artillery. He fought during the first Gulf War as an officer of the First Cavalry Division. He also knows how to pick stocks. He founded Cavalry Asset Management in 2003 and manages more than $1 billion. His 16 technology picks had an average return of 29.4% this year. His top stock picks are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Qualcomm (QCOM), eBay (EBAY), Seagate (STX), and Priceline (PCLN). All of these stocks outperformed the market this year. His focus in tech stocks makes sense. John Hurley is a lecturer at Stanford’s GSB.

5. Martin Hughes Toscafund Asset Management: Martin Hughes had a very concentrated portfolio of financial stocks. His 5 stock picks returned more than 27% this year. His top position was Citigroup.

6. Litespeed Management: Jamie Zimmerman was on Bloomberg last week having lunch with Jim Chanos and two other hedge fund guys. She likes distressed investing and thinks that buying companies that are in bankruptcy offers the best risk-return combination because there is more information about these companies than regular stocks. Well, she knows how to pick regular stocks too. Her 6 stock picks returned 26.3% since the end of 2011. The best performing stock picks were Seagate, Lyondellbasell (LYB), and General Motors. Wait a second, David Einhorn loves these stocks too, how did he do? Actually Einhorn sold out LYB but his top picks were Apple, Microsoft, GM. Seagate was his eighth largest position. Greenlight Capital’s 22 stock picks gained 20.8% this year.

We will post these rankings on our hedge fund page later this week. Let us list the performances of other well-known fund managers here:

9. Marc Lasry: 8 picks returned 25.1%

19. John Thaler JAT Capital: 29 picks returned 21.7%

26. Stephen Mandel: 40 picks returned 20.2%

30. Chase Coleman: 20 picks returned 19.2%

33. John Griffin: 39 picks returned 18.6%

43. Passport Capital: 51 picks returned 18.2%

54. Whitney Tilson: 28 picks returned 17.7%

186. George Soros: 62 picks returned 11.3%

194. John Paulson: 41 picks returned 11.1%

287. Warren Buffett: 32 picks returned 6.4%

The actual performance of these hedge fund managers may be substantially different from the the numbers we calculated. We only took into account their large-cap picks and gave equal weights to each position. We also excluded options, warrants, and other securities in each fund manager’s portfolio. Hedge fund managers also don’t report their short positions which may reduce or increase their overall returns. If you are interested in value-weighted returns of a particular hedge fund or some other customized report, just send us an email.

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Hedge Funds' Favorite Stocks

Hedge fonlarin satin aldiklari hisselere baktigimiz zaman hangi sektorlerin ucuz oldugunu hemen bulabiliyoruz. Insider Monkey son ceyrekte 375 than hedge fonun yaptigi islemleri analiz edip bir yazi yayinladi. 10 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds basligini tasiyan bu yaziya gore teknoloji ve finansal sirketler su an en ucuz sektorler. Analizin devamini ve yeni analizleri Insider Monkey sitesinden takip edebilirsiniz. Read More!

Hedge Fund Performance

HSBC published the Hedge Weekly for the week of Jan 30 to Feb 3, revealing a list of hedge funds’ performances in January 2012. Some of the hedge funds haven't reported any 2012 returns yet. Overall, it seems most hedge funds’ returns are on their way back to positive. Let’s take a look at them.

1. John Paulson – Paulson & Co: Hedge Weekly updated Paulson’s 2011 year-end returns. Through the end of 2011, Paulson’s Credit Opportunities fund lost 18.24% His Advantage fund lost 35.96%. His Advantage Plus fund lost 52.64%, and his Recovery fund lost 27.73%. It's been recently reported by several financial media outlets that Paulson returned around 5% in January 2012.
2. Bill Ackman – Pershing Square: Pershing Square gained 1.10% during the first 13 days of January.

3. Dan Loeb – Third Point: Loeb’s Third Point Offshore fund returned 3.8% during the first 13 days of January 2012.

4. Lee Ainslie – Maverick Capital: Maverick Fund gained 5.89% through January 27, 2012.

5. Jim Simons – Renaissance: Renaissance Institutional Equities gained 0.01% during January 2012.

6. Israel Englander – Millennium: Englander’s Millennium Intl Ltd gained 1.20% in the first 26 days of January.

7. James Dinan – York Capital: Dinan’s York Investment Ltd. gain 2.50% through January 20.

8. Steve Heinz – Lansdowne: Lansdowne’s European Long Only fund gained 4.52% from December 31 to January 27. Lansdowne’s UK Equity fund gained 5.67% in the same time period.

9. Joshua Friedman – Canyon Capital: Canyon’s Balanced Fund lost 4.57% last year. Its January performance is unavailable.

10. Edward Mule – Silver Point Capital: Silver Point Offshore fund gained 0.71% during the 13 days of January.

11. John Bader – Halcyon: Halcyon Offshore Asset-Backed Value Fund is up 0.57% during the first 17 days of January.

12. Richard Perry – Perry Capital: Perry Partners Intl gained 3.61% as of January 27th.

13. Robert Karr – Joho Capital: Joho Capital is up 0.1% through December 31, 2011 to January 27, 2012

14. John Horseman – Horseman Capital: John Horseman’s Global Fund returned 1.39% through January 31.

15. Mark Kingdon – Kingdon Capital: Kingdon Offshore fund gained 6.24% through January 27.

16. Andrew Feldstein – Blue Mountain Capital Management: Blue Mountain Equity Alternatives gained 0.40% through January 27.

17. Curtis Macnguyen – Ivory Capital: Ivory Capital’s Flagship Strategy gained 2.18% through January 27.

18. Michael Messner – Seminole: Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital gained 1.90% in January.

19. Boaz Weinstein – Saba Capital: Saba Capital Offshore returned 0.37% during the first 6 days of January.

20. Thomas Kempner – Davidson Kempner Capital: Davidson Kempner International Class C lost 2.87% last year. The fund was up 0.33% in December.

21. Jacob Gottlieb – Visium Asset Management: Visium Institutional Partners Fund is down 0.08% through January 27.

22. Philippe Jabre – Jabre Capital: As of January 24th, Jabcap Global Balanced Fund Ltd is up 2.5%.

23. Glenn Dubin – Highbridge: Highbridge Long/Short Equity Fund is up 3.58% through January 27.

24. Andreas Halvorsen – Viking Global: Viking Global Equities is up 1.27% through January 27.

25. John Murphy – Alydar: Alydar Fund Ltd lost 0.68% in 2011, and was down 0.8% in December 2011.

26. Leon Cooperman –  Omega Advisors: The Omega Overseas fund was down 1.44% last year. The fund gained 0.83% in December.

27. Ricky Sandler –  Eminence Capital: Eminence Fund is up 4.1% in January.

28. Tom Claugus – Bay Resources:  Partners Offshore fund lost 9.13% in 2011.

29. Paul Tanico – Castlerock: The fund lost 23.84% in the past year. It also lost 3.25% in December.

30. Wayne Cooperman - Cobalt: Cobalt Offshore fund lost 0.69% in 2011. The fund lost 0.28% in December.

31. David Einhorn - Greenlight: Greenlight Capital is up 3% through the end of January.

32: Crispin Odey - Odey Asset Management: The Odey European fund gained 4.18% in the first 13 days of January.

33. Jeffrey Altman – Owl Creek Asset Management: Jeffrey Altman’s hedge fund is up 4.5% through January 27.

34. Paul Tudor Jones – Tudor Investment Corp: Tudor Tensor Fund is up 0.09% through January 27. Tudor BVI Global gained 1.66% during the same period.

35. Alan Howard – Brevan Howard: Brevan Howard Master gained 0.45% through January 20.

Bu yazi ilk olarak Hedge Fund Performance January 2012 adresinde yayinlanmistir.

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Accident and Health Insurance Companies Hedge Funds Love

Accident and health insurance is a big business. People may skimp on life insurance but they rarely go too long without health insurance or accident insurance of some kind – it is just too expensive for treatment otherwise and it can be difficult to find treatment without some kind of insurance. The thing is that investment in this industry is tricky. In as much as people will generally get accident or health insurance at some point, it is also the first thing they drop when times get tough.

To get an idea which companies are worth the risk of investment, looking to hedge fund managers is a good idea – they have teams of analysts at their disposal and they reveal their positions four times a year, plus more often if they add or sell off a large enough portion of a company.

Here is a list of accident and health insurance companies hedge funds are buying.

Aflac, Inc. (AFL): Of the 300+ hedge funds we track, 21 had positions in AFL at the end of the third quarter, compared to 26 at the end of the second quarter. Total hedge fund investment in the company also fell, going from $711.62 million at the end of June to $365.99 at the end of September. In spite of the big change of heart, Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments each had positions in AFL worth over $50 million at the end of the third quarter.

Unum Group (UNM): The total number of hedge funds invested in UNM did not change in the third quarter – there were 16 funds invested in the company at the end of the second quarter and at the end of the third quarter – but total volume of that investment declined somewhat, going from $593.69 million at the end of June to $449.61 million at the end of September. UNM’s largest hedge fund investor wasn’t fazed though. Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors upped its position by +14% in the third quarter to close September with a holding worth more than $361.01 million.

Assurant, Inc. (AIZ): The total number of hedge funds invested in AIZ decreased from 16 at the end of the second quarter to 12 at the end of the third quarter, but the total volume of that investment increased, moving from $286.72 million at the end of June to $385.60 million at the end of September. Top hedge funds invested in AIZ at the end of the third quarter include Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Ralph V. Whitworth’s Relational Investors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. (CNO): The total number of hedge funds invested in CNO decreased from 17 at the end of the second quarter to 12 at the end of the third quarter, but the total volume of that investment increased, moving from $295.81 million at the end of June to $422.01 million at the end of September. John Paulson’s Paulson & Co owned several sizable positions in CNO at the end of the third quarter. His largest is a new position in the company worth roughly $147.73 million at the end of September.

Stancorp Financial Group, Inc. (SFG): The total number of hedge funds invested in SFG did not change in the third quarter – there were 6 funds invested in the company at the end of the second quarter and at the end of the third quarter – but total volume of that investment declined somewhat, going from $54.77 million at the end of June to $34.28 million at the end of September. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management are fans of SFG.

Kaynak: Accident and Health Insurance Companies Hedge Funds Love

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Top 10 Hedge Funds in 2011

We have been compiling hedge fund returns in 2011 for the past couple of weeks. We gathered returns for more than 60 hedge funds we are tracking. Here are the 10 top hedge funds in 2011:

1. Chase Coleman – Tiger Global: Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global returned 45% through the end of October.

2. Carl Icahn: Icahn was one of the most successful hedge fund managers and returned 35% in 2011.

3. Jim Simons – Renaissance: Renaissance Institutional Equities gained 1.97% from November 30 to December 23. The fund was also up 34.66% through December 23rd.

4. Ray Dalio – Bridgewater Associates: Ray Dalio’s successful fund gained 25% through the end of November.

5. David E. Shaw – D.E. Shaw: David Shaw’s Oculus Fund gained 19% through the end of October.

6. Ken Griffin – Citadel: Ken Griffin returned 17.7% through the end of October.

7. Philippe Laffont – Coatue Capital: Laffont returned 16.9% through the end of October.

8. John Thaler – JAT Capital: JAT Capital had generated a 38% return at its peak in early September. Betting on Netflix didn’t help the fund in the fourth quarter. JAT is still up 14% through mid-December.

9. Hugh Hendry – Eclectica Asset Management: Hugh Hendry’s Eclectica gained 11.7% through the end of October. The fund returned 2.7% in 2010.

10. Alan Howard – Brevan Howard: Brevan Howard Master gained 10.8% through the end of October.

Kaynak: Top Hedge Funds 2011

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Hedge Fund Performance 2011

HSBC published the Hedge Weekly #53, revealing a list of hedge funds’ return in 2011. The report didn’t have some of the hedge funds Insider Monkey is tracking, so we updated those returns. Some of the returns weren’t up to date, we updated those as well. We will update this list through the end of this month as we get more investor letters about hedge funds’ 2011 performance.

1. John Paulson – Paulson & Co: John Paulson apologized in November to his investors for his worst year in the firm’s 17-year history. As of December 16th, Paulson’s Advantage Plus fund lost around 52%. His Advantage fund is down around 36% through December 16th. His gold fund is also down by around 7% through mid-December.

2. Bill Ackman – Pershing Square: Pershing Square lost 1.1% in 2011.

3. Dan Loeb – Third Point: Loeb’s Third Point Offshore fund lost 0.1% in 2011.

4. Lee Ainslie – Maverick Capital: Maverick Fund lost 14.56% through December 23rd.

5. Jim Simons – Renaissance: Renaissance Institutional Equities gained 1.97% from November 30 to December 23. The fund was also up 34.66% through December 23rd.

6. Israel Englander – Millennium: Englander’s Millennium Intl Ltd gained 0.19% in the first 22 days of December. The fund is up 7.46% through December 22nd.

7. James Dinan – York Capital: Dinan’s York Investment Ltd. lost 7.22% through December 23rd.

8. John Thaler – JAT Capital: JAT Capital had generated a 38% return at its peak in early September. Betting on Netflix didn’t help the fund in the fourth quarter. JAT is still up 14% through mid-December.

9. Steve Heinz – Lansdowne: Lansdowne’s European Long Only fund gained 1.51% after November, while it is down 12.47% through December 23rd. Lansdowne’s UK Equity fund performed even worse. The fund lost 19.65% in the same time period.

10. Joshua Friedman – Canyon Capital: Canyon’s Balanced Fund has gained 0.1% in November, but lost 5.08 in the first 11 months of 2011.

11. Edward Mule – Silver Point Capital: Silver Point Offshore fund gained 0.95% during the first half of December. The fund was also up 4.54% through mid-December.

12. John Bader – Halcyon: Halcyon Offshore Asset-Backed Value Fund is up 0.05% during the first 15 days of December. It is up 4.44% through December 15th.

13. Richard Perry – Perry Capital: Perry Partners Intl lost 3.12% from November 30th to December 23rd. The fund was also down 7.79% through December 23rd.

14. Robert Karr – Joho Capital: Joho Capital is up 0.1% through December 23rd.

15. John Horseman – Horseman Capital: John Horseman’s Global Fund lost 2.66% through December 28th.

16. Mark Kingdon – Kingdon Capital: Kingdon Offshore fund lost 17.73% through December 23rd.

17. Curtis Macnguyen – Ivory Capital: Ivory Capital’s Flagship Strategy lost 3.14% through December 23rd.

18. Michael Messner – Seminole: Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital lost 0.6% in 2011. This is the first time since 2002 Seminole Capital had a losing year. The fund gained 0.6% in 2008.

19. Stephen Mandel – Lone Pine Capital: Lone Pine’s best performing fund is Lone Kauri which is down 3.8% through the end of September. Its worst performing fund is Lone Dragon Pine which is down 25.3% through September.

20. Bruce Berkowitz – Fairholme: Bruce Berkowitz also had a terrible year. Fairholme lost 34.9% in 2011.

21. Jacob Gottlieb – Visium Asset Management: Visium Institutional Partners Fund is up 0.86% through December 23rd. Visium Balance Offshore fund is up 1.45% in the same time frame.

22. Philippe Jabre – Jabre Capital: As of December 20th, Jabcap Global Balanced Fund Ltd is down 26.88%.

23. Glenn Dubin – Highbridge: Highbridge Long/Short Equity Fund is down 12.90% through December 23rd.

24. Andreas Halvorsen – Viking Global: Viking Global Equities is up 7.80% through December 23rd.

25. John Murphy – Alydar: Alydar Fund Ltd lost 0.48% through December 23rd.

26. Leon Cooperman –  Omega Advisors: The Omega Overseas fund is down 2.22% through December 23rd.

27. Ricky Sandler –  Eminence Capital: Eminence Fund is up 0.72% through December 23rd.

28. Tom Claugus – Bay Resources:  Partners Offshore fund lost 9.13% in 2011 through November 30th.

29. Paul Tanico – Castlerock: The fund lost 21.28% through the end of November.

30. Wayne Cooperman’s Cobalt: Cobalt Offshore fund lost 0.39% through November 30th.

31. David Einhorn’s Greenlight: Greenlight Capital is up abut 5% through mid-December.

32: Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management: The Odey European fund lost 5.34% in the first 14 days of December. The fund also lost 22.67% in 2011 through December 14th.

33. Steven Cohen SAC Capital: SAC Capital’s flagship fund is up about 8% through the end of November.

34. Whitney Tilson – T2 Partners: T2 Partners lost 25% through the end of November.

35. Ray Dalio – Bridgewater Associates: Ray Dalio’s successful fund gained 25% through the end of November.

36. Jeffrey Altman – Owl Creek Asset Management: Jeffrey Altman’s hedge fund is down around 13% through the end of November.

37. Jiang Ping – Ping Capital: Ping Capital is down 5% through the end of November.

38. Paul Tudor Jones – Tudor Investment Corp: Tudor Tensor Fund is down 1.3% through the end of November.

39. John Burbank – Passport Capital: Passport Global Fund lost 11.6% through the end of September.

40. Joel Greenblatt – Gotham Asset Management: Formula Investing U.S. Value 1000 fund is up 1.7% in 2011. This is a mutual fund using Greenblatt’s magic formula.

Source: Hedge Fund Returns 2011 Read More!

Pershing Square Q3 Investor Letter

Insider Monkey published Pershing Square's third quarter investor letter. Pershing Square's Q3 investor letter shows that Bill Ackman's hedge fund returned more than 500% since the beginning of 2004 and Ackman retained more than 200 percentage points of that return. So Bill Ackman's investors quadrupled their money over the past 8 years.

It is an interesting investor letter detailing Pershing Square's investments in U.S. stocks. Read More!

Boykin Curry ve Eagle Capital'dan Tavsiye Hisseler

Boykin Curry ve Eagle Capital'dan iki tane tavsiye hisse var. Bunlardan bir tanesi herkesin yakindan tanidigi Goldman Sachs sirketi. Digeri ise AON isimli sigorta sirketi. Boykin Curry AON sirketine Haziran ayinin sonunda $500 milyondan fazla para yatirmisti.

Bu konuyla ilgili detayli yaziya Insider Monkey'deki Boykin Curry sayfasindan ulasabilirsiniz. Read More!

ValueAct Capital

ValueAct Capital Amerika'da uzun vadeli yatirim yapan hedge fonlardan bir tanesi. Biz Insider Monkey'de bu fonun barindirdigi hisselere iliskin ValueAct Capital baslikli bir yazi hazirladik. Yaziyi sahsen ben yazmadim ama Amerika'da yasayan ve adam gibi Ingilizcesi olan bir yazarimiz yazdi. Bu arada kendisi Turk. Yazar ilanimiza basvuranlar "native" seviyesine yakin Ingilizce bilen Turk bulamazsiniz diyor ama benim bu nitelikleri tasiyan 6-7 tane yazarim halihazirda var. Problem bu kisilerin zaten cok iyi islerinin olmasi. O yuzden de bekledigim olcude katkida bulunamiyorlar.

Neyse Ingilizcesine guvenen ve kendisini sinamak isteyen bize Ingilizce yazilarini gonderebilir. ValueAct Capital yazisi kadar uzun olmasa da en azindan 300 kelime olmasini bekliyoruz yazdiginiz yazinin. Read More!

Jeffrey Vinik

Jeffrey Vinik is an American fund manager. Here is our latest article about Jeff Vinik and Vinik Asset Management.

Wikipedia says the following about Jeff Vinik: Jeffrey N. Vinik (born March 22, 1959) is the current owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL) and the Tampa Bay Storm (AFL),[1] as well as a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox (MLB).[2] He is also on the board of directors for Liverpool Football Club of the Premier League.

Don't forget to visit our article if you want to find out what billionaire Jeff Vinik is buying. Read More!

David Tepper'ın Son Gözde Tercihleri

Appaloosa Hedge Fonu yöneticisi David Tepper'ın, 2009 ve 2010 yıllarında maaşı milyar dolarlarla ölçüldü. Geçtiğimiz yıl Appaloosa 16 milyar doları idare etti ve %30'luk bir getiri elde etti. Amerika'nın prestijli üniversitelerinden biri olan Carnegie Mellon lisansüstü isletme bölümünün adını 2004 yılında The Tepper School of Business olarak değiştirdi. David Tepper şu anda dünyanın en zengin 258. insanı.

Tepper ikinci çeyrekte sadece tek bir hisse senedine büyük ölçüde yatırım yaptı. Appaloosa şu anda The Mosaic Company'de (MOS) 162 milyon dolarlık bir paya sahip. Aynı şekilde Dan Loeb, Richard Perry ve John Paulson da ikinci çeyrekte MOS'a yatırım yaptı.

Dolar milyarderi Tepper'ın son çeyrekteki yatırımlarına göz atmak için sizi Insider Monkey'deki David Tepper's Hot New Picks adlı yazımıza bekliyoruz.

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