Energy Hedge Fund Westbeck’s Momentum Halted, as Rising Covid Cases Send Oil Equities into Retreat (Hedge Week)
Energy-focused hedge fund manager Westbeck Capital Management’s flagship strategy has suffered its first monthly loss in eight months, after surging coronavirus rates in China, Europe and North America dented oil markets – but the fund remains up more than 70 per cent since the start of the year. The Westbeck Energy Opportunity Fund – a long/short directional hedge fund strategy which trades a mix of oil equities, futures and options – fell 5.3 per cent in July. By comparison, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP), which tracks oil services companies, lost 14.4 per cent in July, while and Brent (total return) gained 2.1 per cent.
Bain to Start Long-Short Hedge Fund Focused on Green Investing (Bloomberg)
Bain Capital is starting a hedge fund to bet on and against companies based on sustainable-investing criteria as part of the alternative asset manager’s roughly $3 billion public-equities business. The firm, which already has a private strategy that makes impact investments, expects to launch the fund by October, according to an investor document viewed by Bloomberg. It will focus on consumer, financial, technology and health-care stocks and invest globally in companies with market values exceeding $1 billion.
Billionaire-Run Investment Firms Like Citadel and Tiger Global are Snapping Up Pricey NYC Offices in a Clear Rebuke to Remote Work (Business Insider)
Financial firms like Tiger Global, Citadel, and Stone Ridge are expanding their New York offices. The activity reflects a belief that the office is key to continued success. Meanwhile, much of corporate America is grappling with when and how to bring workers back. High-flying financial players such as hedge funds, private-equity firms, and other boutique investment companies are expanding their Manhattan offices like it’s 2019.
SEC Charges Netflix Insider Trading Ring (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced insider trading charges against three former Netflix Inc. software engineers and two close associates who generated over $3 million in total profits by trading on confidential information about Netflix’s subscriber growth. According to the SEC’s complaint, Sung Mo “Jay” Jun was at the center of a long-running scheme to illegally trade on non-public information concerning the growth in Netflix’s subscriber base, a key metric Netflix reported in its quarterly earnings announcements. The complaint alleges that Sung Mo Jun, while employed at Netflix in 2016 and 2017, repeatedly tipped this information to his brother, Joon Mo Jun, and his close friend, Junwoo Chon, who both used it to trade in advance of multiple Netflix earnings announcements.
Friday 8/20 Insider Buying Report: RL, BRSP (Nasdaq.com)
At Ralph Lauren Corp (RL), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director Hubert Joly purchased 8,400 shares of RL, for a cost of $117.90 each, for a total investment of $990,360. Investors have the opportunity to grab RL even cheaper than Joly did, with the stock changing hands as low as $114.94 in trading on Friday which is 2.5% below Joly’s purchase price. Ralph Lauren Corp is trading up about 0.1% on the day Friday. This buy marks the first one filed by Joly in the past twelve months. And on Tuesday, CEO and President Michael Mazzei purchased $942,350 worth of BrightSpire Capital (BRSP), purchasing 100,000 shares at a cost of $9.42 each. This buy marks the first one filed by Mazzei in the past year. BrightSpire Capital is trading off about 1.1% on the day Friday.
The Chairman Emeritus of Audacy (NYSE: AUD) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the Chairman Emeritus of Audacy (AUD), Joseph Field, bought shares of AUD for $1.22M. This recent transaction increases Joseph Field’s holding in the company by 2.88% to a total of $45.42 million. Following Joseph Field’s last AUD Buy transaction on May 20, 2020, the stock climbed by 1.7%. Based on Audacy’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $304 million and quarterly net profit of $1.43 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $176 million and had a GAAP net loss of $53.81 million.
