Joshua S. Friedman and Mitchell R. Julis‘ Canyon Capital Advisors is a Los Angeles investment firm with an equity portfolio valued at $3.19 billion. It is an alternate asset management company which specializes in investments with lower volatility and an investment strategy that focuses on risk-adjusted returns that can surpass equity and debt market indexes. Friedman and Julis co-founded the firm in 1990 and as of now, it has offices in New York and London. The latest 13F filing of Canyon Capital Advisors for the reporting period of March 31 reveals numerous investments in the solar energy sector. Some of its solar energy picks include Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS) and Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), which we’ll discuss in this article, among others.
Canyon Capital Advisors is just one of more than 700 hedge funds that we have in our database, whose equity portfolios we collate quarterly as part of our small-cap strategy. Even though most smaller investors believe that tracking 13F filings is a mostly pointless endeavor because they are filed with a delay of a maximum of 45 days after the end of a calendar quarter, the results of our research prove that is not the case. To be on the safe side, we used a delay of 60 days in our backtests that involved the 13F filings of funds between 1999 and 2012 and we still managed to gain an annual alpha in the double digits. Moreover, since the official launch of our strategy in August 2012, it has performed just as predicted, obtaining returns of more than 139% and beating the S&P 500 Total Return Index by 80 percentage points (see the details).
Friedman and Julis initiated a new position in Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) of 4.98 million shares valued at $119.44 million. Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) is known for producing photovoltaic energy solutions and silicon wafers. The shares of the solar solutions provider have increased 53.14% year-to-date and it has a current market cap of $8.01 billion. The solar energy firm continued its efforts to bag the highest number of renewable energy projects in the world despite its first quarter operating losses. Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) reported net revenue of $323 million in its first quarter of 2015 along with an earnings loss of $424 million. However, the actual news-grabbing attention was its plan to launch an international yieldco, which would target projects outside of the United States. Some of these target markets include India, China, Brazil, Peru, Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa, and Uruguay. Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) is one of the most popular stocks among the funds we track, with billionaires David Einhorn, Larry Robbins, and Stephen Mandel, among other investors, owning positions in the company.
Canyon Capital Advisors purchased a new 418,000 share stake in JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS), which is valued at $10.72 million as of the reporting period. The shares of this micro-cap solar product manufacturer have performed extremely well, achieving a hike of 48.22% year-to-date. The Chinese solar company will announce financial results for the quarter ended on March 31 before the opening of U.S. markets on May 28. The market estimates earnings per share to come in at $0.46 against prior year earnings of $0.89. The average price target for JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS) is $35.55, which indicates an upside of 25% in share price. Quentec Asset Managemet, Kingdon Capital, and Crestwood Capital Management hold substantial stakes in JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS).
The investment managers continued to show their interest in the solar industry by snatching up shares of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), another new solar energy stock in their equity portfolio. Canyon Capital Advisors’ current position in the Canadian firm includes 295,700 shares valued at $9.87 million. Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) has witnessed a 44.69% increase in its share price year-to-date. It is the world’s third-largest solar panel manufacturer and Xiaohua Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), is estimating a shortage of solar panels in the next few months because of an increasing demand for the product. The company reported quarterly revenue of $860.9 million, which was 84.6% higher than the year-ago period. Canadian Solar Inc. reported an increase in its revenue from Europe and America during the quarter as well. Some of the biggest shareholders in the company include Donald Chiboucis‘ Columbus Circle Investors, Millennium Management, and Quentec Asset Management.
SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) is another solar stock in the equity portfolio of Canyon Capital Advisors, with the fund owning 148,000 shares of the company, valued at $4.63 million. Following a similar trend as the previous solar companies, the shares of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) have grown 25.73% in the current year, signalling that this may indeed have been a wise time to jump on this segment. It was a disappointing first quarter for the commercial and residential solar products provider however, with its commercial revenue dropping 36% year-over-year. Further, the residential revenue of the firm dropped 6% year-over-year along with a 49% drop in its power plant revenue. D E Shaw, Point72 Asset Management, and Masters Capital Management are among the primary investors of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR).
With 169,295 shares valued at $3.71 million, Solaredge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG) is another stock in Friedman’s equity portfolio. In terms of solar stock holdings with the highest year-to-date returns, Solaredge actually topped all comers with 70.87% growth in its share price. Solaredge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG) will play a huge part in Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s Powerall Home Battery System, which is designed to offer electricity when the sun goes down. Solaredge Technologies has a current market cap of $1.41 billion and its shares are trading at $35.43. Crispin Odey‘s Odey Asset Management has one of the largest positions in Solaredge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG), which had its IPO towards the end of the first quarter.
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