Why Hedge-Fund Manager Doug Kass Says His Bearish Case is Now Stronger and Dip Buyers Should Bide Their Time (MarketWatch)
For equity dip buyers still waiting in the wings, hedge-fund manager Doug Kass suggests holding fire for now as better bargains, and unfortunately worse times, are ahead. “It is my view that the odds favor that the rally over the last two days of January and into the first week of February, may have been a Bear Market rally and the first shot across the market’s bow – providing a great trading opportunity but not likely the basis for a new Bull Market leg,” said the president of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management, in a note to clients.
Element Made a Big Fourth-Quarter Bet on Equities (Institutional Investor)
The macro giant headed by Jeffrey Talpins established 36 new long positions. Element Capital Management sharply increased the size of its U.S. stock portfolio in the fourth quarter.The macro hedge fund firm headed by Jeffrey Talpins held more than $1.55 billion in U.S. equities as of December 31, 2021, according to its latest 13F filing, made public Wednesday.
Macellum Ramps Up Pressure at Kohl’s With 10-Director Slate (Bloomberg)
Activist investor Macellum Capital Management has nominated 10 directors in an effort to take control of Kohl’s Corp.’s board, arguing the retailer’s leadership “appears to be botching a sale process.” Jonathan Duskin, Macellum’s managing partner, said in a letter to shareholders Thursday that the board’s rejection of two takeover proposals at a substantial premium last week, along with the adoption of an “onerous” poison pill, suggests it’s no longer acting impartially or objectively.
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QQM Ready for Fintech Era (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In June of last year, Swedish fintech company Nowonomics announced an agreement to acquire a 72 percent stake in hedge fund boutique QQM Fund Management via a non-cash stock issue. With the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen, approving the deal back in October, Nowonomics has now completed the acquisition after meeting all required conditions.
IFF Reaches Settlement Agreement With Carl Icahn (The Wall Street Journal)
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. reached a settlement agreement with activist investor Carl Icahn that will add a new director to the big ingredient maker’s board. As part of the agreement unveiled Wednesday with the company’s earnings, IFF is adding Barry Bruno, the chief marketing officer of consumer-goods company Church & Dwight Co. , as an independent director.
Only 25 per cent of the Biggest Chinese Quant Hedge Funds Made Money in Q4 2021 (Hedge Week)
Only seven of the 28 largest Chinese quant hedge fund managers – those managing more than CNY10 billion – generated positive returns in the last quarter of 2021, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. High-Flyer Quant took the biggest hit losing an average of more than 11 per cent across its funds and made a public apology to investors as a result, citing problems with its algorithms and rapid industry growth for the setback.
Why Alternative Asset Managers Must Embrace Change (Preqin)
Alternative assets are perfectly suited to retail savers, but fund managers will only be able to serve these investors if they embrace consolidation and scale up. Risk capital is the key to an improving world. This includes investing via public markets and, increasingly, via private markets – alternative investments that can fund the technologies, enterprises, and infrastructure to support a better way for us to live in the future. These alternative assets – private equity, growth capital, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure, real assets, and others – bring long-term, patient capital to the technologies that need to be developed for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Video: Nordic Hedge Index 2021 Annual Review (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The Nordic Hedge Index closed its books for 2021 up 6.0 percent, settling a fresh all-time high. The video below summarizes the events in the Nordic hedge fund space during 2021, featuring comments from the top performing managers and introductions to some exciting new launches and additions to the Nordic Hedge Index. Among the top performers for the year were Borea Utbytte, up nearly 62 percent, activist investor Accendo up by 58 percent, HCP Quant advancing 48 percent, as well as OAM Absolute Return, FE Select, Calgus and Symmetry Invest. In the video, members of the teams behind Borea Utbytte, Accendo, Calgus and Symmetry Invest comment on their 2021 performance.
AQR Posts Record Performance in January (Institutional Investor)
The asset manager stuck with value amid painful losses. Now, it believes its steadfastness is paying off. After a long period of underperformance, $124 billion AQR Capital Management had a strong 2021 and a record-breaking start to 2022. AQR’s absolute return strategy, the asset manager’s broadest and longest-running multi-strategy, just passed its best month of performance ever. The strategy kicked off 2022 with a net return of 10.4 percent in the first five days of January and ended the month with a year-to-date return of 15.4 percent, according to a person familiar with the firm.
Thursday 2/10 Insider Buying Report: LESL, PYPL (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, Leslie’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael R. Egeck, made a $2M buy of LESL, purchasing 101,700 shares at a cost of $19.66 a piece. So far Egeck is in the green, up about 11.8% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $21.98. Leslie’s is trading up about 4% on the day Thursday. This buy marks the first one filed by Egeck in the past twelve months. And also on Tuesday, Director David W. Dorman bought $1.00M worth of PayPal Holdings, buying 8,400 shares at a cost of $119.33 each. Before this latest buy, Dorman made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $288,469 shares for a cost of $186.47 a piece. PayPal Holdings is trading up about 0.7% on the day Thursday. Dorman was up about 4.3% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with PYPL trading as high as $124.52 at last check today.
7 Penny Stocks To Buy Based On Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Holdings (The Entrepreneur)
With the stock market selling off in 2022, growth funds have felt a lot of pressure. But no single firm or fund manager has been placed in the spotlight more than Cathie Wood. She famously put a massive price target on electric vehicle company Tesla. In 2020, she voiced her optimism on Musk’s TSLA stock, saying it would reach $7,000 per share in the next five years.
