George Soros Giving Up On This Struggling Company, While Adage Capital Moves In On This Offshore Driller

Let’s now provide a brief introduction to Soros Fund Management prior to diving into the story of Quantum Corp. George Soros’ family office was established in 1969 and is currently overseen by Chief Investment Officer Scott Bessent. Soros, one the greatest hedge fund managers in history, retired back in 2011 after returning the external capital his fund managed to investors. Soros does still participates in the firm’s decision making process even though he is not fully involved in its daily operations. According to its 13F filing for the June quarter, Soros Fund Management oversees a public equity portfolio with a market value of $10.75 billion.

It appears that Quantum Corp (NYSE:QTM) has serious problems weighing it down, so Soros Fund Management is trimming its stake in the expert in scale-out storage, and archive and data protection. Earlier this week, the company was notified by the New York Stock Exchange that it was no longer complying with NYSE’s listing standard that requires stocks to trade above the minimum average closing price of $1.00 for 30 trading sessions. In fact, the stock has lost 56% since the beginning of the year and there are no serious indicators that might suggest a rebound. Just recently, Quantum announced the reduction of its second quarter of fiscal 2016 revenue guidance to the range of $116 million-to-$118 million, which was lowered by roughly 2-3% from the previously-announced guidance. However, this downgrade comes despite higher-than-expected demand for its products, so the company was not able to complete the production of all orders received.

The hedge fund sentiment on the stock did not change at all during the second quarter, with the number of top money managers invested in Quantum remaining unchanged at 24. The hedge funds stockpiled 30.00% of the company’s shares at the end of June, which could suggest that the smart money still believes in the company. The value of their investments in the stock increased during the three-month period to $130.35 million from $121.36 million. Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value reported owning 25.70 million shares of Quantum Corp (NYSE:QTM) in its 13F filing for the June quarter.

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