Paul J. Isaac’s Arbiter Partners Capital Management has recently filed its 13F filing for the first quarter of 2015. In the first decade since its foundation in 2001, Paul J. Isaac achieved average yearly returns of 21%. Arbiter’s latest 13F revealed an equity portfolio valued at $1.16 billion, with a total of 122 positions, mostly in consumer discretionary and financial sectors. The largest positions in terms of value from Arbiter’s latest 13F are represented by ‘Put’ options underlying shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). Among the top holdings are also ‘Put’ options underlying shares of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM).
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On the first spot is Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), in which Arbiter disclosed ‘Put’ options equal to 725,600 shares with a value of $270.00 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015. The fund first disclosed a ‘Put’ position as of the end of the third quarter of 2014, equal to 75,500 shares, and it was raised in the following quarters. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock has lost 3.56% in the last quarter of 2014 then has advanced by 37.54% since the beginning of 2015. By increasing his position significantly in the last two quarters, Isaac has shown his consistency on betting against Amazon. Isaac also shorted Amazon several times in the past. At the end of 2013 when the stock was trading at $402.20, Isaac commented on CNBC:
“We’ve shorted it off and on for some time. The short position we have on now has gotten large because the stock has run up,” Isaac stated. “I think that Amazon probably has some pretty good businesses in it. But given its valuation, I think it’s very expensive.”
Unlike Arbiter Partners, some investors are bullish on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), including Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Lansdowne Partners, which disclosed holding 2.47 million shares and 1.70 million shares respectively as of the end of March.
