Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: D.E. Shaw, Appaloosa Management, CQS Cayman LP, Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp (ADMP), Equitrans Midstream Corp (ETRN), and More

Hedge Fund Appaloosa Unimpressed by Allergan Board Promises (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Activist investor Appaloosa LP responded to proposed concessions from the board of Allergan Plc by saying it had done everything “except what needs to be done” and calling on other investors to take further “disruptive” steps to change the company. The hedge fund, led by billionaire David Tepper, has been pressing Allergan since last year to separate the roles of CEO and chairman or potentially sell or merge the company.

CQS Hedge Fund Says Curve Inverting on Technicals Won’t Last (Bloomberg)
As sovereign bonds around the world continue their relentless climb and a closely watched segment of the U.S. yield curve inverts — seen as a harbinger of recession — the level of anxiety about the global economy can’t be understated. For hedge fund CQS, that caution has gone a bit too far.“We are not quite that gloomy, in fact, we are rather more sanguine about prospects for the global economy,” Xavier Rolet, chief executive officer at London-based CQS, which manages about $18 billion, told Bloomberg TV. “There are some technical considerations at the moment that are impacting the shape of the curve. These are temporary conditions.”

Insider Trading Wall Street Trader Panic

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D.E. Shaw Gives Special Access to Blackstone and it Shows the Leverage the Hedge Fund Industry’s Largest Investors Have (Business Insider)
Every hedge fund — even the biggest firms run by celebrity investors — is most concerned about one thing: Keeping its biggest investor happy. For $50 billion quant fund D.E. Shaw, that means giving its biggest investor — private equity giant Blackstone —preferential treatment, according to several sources inside the manager. Blackstone is the largest hedge fund investor in the world, with more than $78 billion invested in hedge funds as of the end of 2018, so it pulls weight across the hedge fund world.

Boston Hedge Fund Manager Sentenced for $38M Ponzi Scheme (UpToBoston)
Boston, MA– Raymond Montoya, a 70-year-old man from Allston, was sentenced in federal court on Thursday afternoon for running a Ponzi scheme. Patch reports that the Boston hedge fund manager defrauded members of his family, friends, and acquaintances of $38 million between the years of 2009 and 2017. He told everyone that he was investing their money in stocks and bonds, but instead Montoya stole the majority of the money and used it for personal expenses including fancy car purchases. Back in October 2018, Montoya pleaded guilty on several counts including wire fraud, mail fraud, and conducting unlawful monetary transactions. On Thursday, he was sentenced to 14 ½ years in prison for his crimes by U.S. Senior District Court Judge George O’Toole.

Media Company Begins Strategic Review Urged by Hedge Fund (Institutional Investor)
IDW Media Holdings is exploring its strategic options less than a month after hedge fund firm ADW Capital Partners pushed the media business to sell itself. The company said Monday that it has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to help with a review of strategic relationships and alternatives. ADW, which owns more than 9 percent of IDWM, had asked the company in a letter earlier this month to announce such a process to maximize the value of its intellectual property.

Who Did Dallas’ Perot Family Just Put in Charge of the Family Fortune? (DallasNews)
Dallas’ billionaire Perot family has hired a new investment chief that will manage the family’s fortune, according to The Wall Street Journal. Veteran hedge fund trader Boaz Sidikaro, 44, will take on managing the family’s wealth after having been a part of Perot Investments since March. Sidikaro worked at New York hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group for more than 20 years.

Former Hedge Fund Partner Lands at Jefferies After Founder Jumps Ship for Citadel (eFinancialCareers)
A buy-side lifer who made headlines when he bolted from Balyasny Asset Management to join a hedge fund startup has popped back up at Jefferies. Jared Weisfeld started as a managing director in New York in February. Weisfeld’s career arc took two radical turns over the previous few years. In 2016, the former associate portfolio manager at Balyasny made a huge leap when he was named partner and technology sector head at Margate Capital, the hedge fund founded earlier that year by Samantha Greenberg, one of the most senior women on the buy-side.

Seth Klarman’s Advice on Long-Term Investing (GuruFocus)
One of the few advantages value investors have over the rest of the market is time. Value investors can be more patient, which means they can make the most time arbitrage — buying deeply discounted securities and waiting for the valuation discrepancy to correct itself. This means it is essential for value investors to have a long-term orientation, which is a strategy both Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) and Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) have benefited from over the years. Both of these renowned investors realized early on that to be a genuinely great equity investor, you have to look past the next quarter, far into the future and try to ignore near-term market gyrations.

‘There Were Mistakes, But I am Not an Insider Trader,’ Says Rajat Gupta, Former Head of McKinsey & Co (FirstPost)
Rajat Gupta, former head of McKinsey & Co has revealed the story of his fall from grace in his memoir Mind Without Fear to be published next week. In a slew of interviews to the media, Gupta has reiterated that he has not written the book to ‘defend’ himself or to ‘relitigate’ the case. The memoir, he says, tells his side of the story ‘in my own voice and what I went through and how I see the facts as I see them and I narrate them,” he said, to CNBC-TV18.

Insider Buys Of The Week: Air Transport, Fidelity National, Revlon (Benzinga)
Conventional wisdom says that insiders and 10 percent owners really only buy shares of a company for one reason — they believe the stock price will rise and they want to profit from it. So insider buying can be an encouraging signal for potential investors, particularly during periods of uncertainty. Here’s a look at a few notable insider purchases reported in the past week. Revlon: Revlon Inc REV 7.29% saw a director step up to the buy window last week. At $17.42 to $21.27 apiece, the 355,000 shares acquired via trust cost that director around $7.06 million. That brought his stake up to almost 45.6 million shares, which compares with less than 53 million shares listed as outstanding.

Monday 3/25 Insider Buying Report: ETRN, KW (Nasdaq.com)
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. At Equitrans Midstream, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, CEO Thomas F. Karam bought 250,000 shares of ETRN, at a cost of $20.47 each, for a total investment of $5.12M. Bargain hunters are able to pick up ETRN even cheaper than Karam did, with shares trading as low as $20.18 at last check today which is 1.4% below Karam’s purchase price. Equitrans Midstream Corp is trading off about 0.2% on the day Monday. This purchase marks the first one filed by Karam in the past year.

What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Adamis Pharma (NASDAQ:ADMP)? (AnalystRatings)
Today, the President & CEO of Adamis Pharma (ADMP), Dennis Phd Carlo, sold shares of ADMP for $30.04K. In addition to Dennis Phd Carlo, 2 other ADMP executives reported Sell trades in the last month. Based on Adamis Pharma’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $4.15 million and GAAP net loss of $12.81 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $2.84 million and had a GAAP net loss of $8.03 million. Currently, Adamis Pharma has an average volume of 424.5K.

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CRNX) Insider Trading Activity – Major Shareholder Sold 417,000 shares of Stock (MarketExclusive)
Insider Trading Activity For Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CRNX): Vivo Capital Fund Viii, L.P. , Major Shareholder of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CRNX) reportedly Sold 417,000 shares of the company’s stock at an average price of 22.25 for a total transaction amount of $9,278,250.00.