Billionaire Marc Lasry’s Top Q4 Moves From Avenue Management’s Last 13F

Moving on, Avenue Capital bought 917,000 shares of SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bnd ETF (NYSEARCA:JNK) during the fourth quarter worth $31.1 million, as of December 31. Since Mr. Lasry is bullish on energy sector debt, it isn’t a surprise that the fund initiated this stake in an ETF that mimics Barclays Capital High Yield Very Liquid Index. This index consists of taxable corporate bonds that are US dollar denominated, fixed-rate, non-investment grade, that have a remaining maturity of at least one year, regardless of optionality, have $600 million or more of outstanding face value and are rated high-yield using the middle rating of Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch, respectively. Though the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bnd ETF (NYSEARCA:JNK) has fallen by over 18% since June last year, owing to the $0.17 per share monthly dividend it pays, its annual dividend yield has increased to over 7.5% during the same time.

iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSEARCA:HYG) was another high-yield ETF in which Avenue Capital initiated a stake during the fourth quarter. It acquired 390,100 shares of  iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSEARCA:HYG) during the last three months, valued at $31.43 million on December 31. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) (NYSEARCA:HYG) tracks the investment results of Markit iBoxx USD Liquid High Yield Index, which primarily consists of US dollar denominated high yield corporate bonds of consumer services, financial, industrials, and oil and gas companies. Although shares of iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF)(NYSEARCA:HYG) have declined by 15% since June last year, it sports a dividend yield of 6.71%.

Finally, even though Avenue Capital increased its stake in electric utility company Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) by 62% during the fourth quarter, the company remained Avenue Capital’s sixth-largest equity holding at the end of fourth quarter due to the 35% decline its stock witnessed during that period. Even though Morgan Stanley upgraded the regulated utilities industry to ‘In-Line’ from cautious and named Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN)  as its top pick in the sector on January 12, shares of  Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) didn’t change their trajectory and have fallen 37%  so far this year. The company is expected to report its fourth quarter earnings next week and analysts are projecting that it will declare a per share loss of $1.45 on revenue of $1.09 billion, compared to a loss of $0.96 per share on revenue of $599 million delivered for the same period of 2014. Howard Marks‘ Oaktree Capital Management held 9.8 million shares of the company at the end of fourth quarter.

Disclosure: None