Hedge Fund Greenlight Capital’s Strong Fourth Quarter Gains Lift 2020 Return to 5.2%: Letter (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – Greenlight Capital ended 2020 with a 5.2% gain thanks to a dramatic fourth quarter comeback when bets on a homebuilder, jet leasing company and home security services company turned into a 25% return, the firm said in a letter to investors on Thursday. The hedge fund, run by David Einhorn, lagged far behind the broader S&P 500 index’s 18.4% gain but celebrated its late year surge which it described as “the best quarterly result in Greenlight’s history.” Reuters obtained a copy of the letter.
Bridgewater’s CEO on Inequality, Uncertainty, and Polarization (Bloomberg)
David McCormick, the chief executive officer of Bridgewater Associates, isn’t a typical hedge fund honcho. He’s a former Army Ranger who cleared minefields in the first Gulf War and a Princeton Ph.D. who served as President George W. Bush’s undersecretary of the Treasury. He now runs the company Ray Dalio founded, which manages $140 billion, much of that for pension funds. How do you reconcile the political situation with the state of financial markets?
Third SPAC ETF Launch Taps Into Blank-Check Company Boom (The Wall Street Journal)
Morgan Creek Capital’s Mark Yusko is teaming up with former Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan. Wall Street is launching a third exchange-traded fund that invests in special-purpose acquisition companies, accelerating a rush to cash in on investors’ enthusiasm for so-called blank-check firms. The hedge fund Morgan Creek Capital Management and the financial-technology company Exos Financial plan to launch the SPAC ETF on Tuesday, the companies said. The new Morgan Creek-Exos SPAC Originated ETF will trade under the ticker SPXZ and consist of a mix of firms that recently went public by merging with a SPAC plus shell companies that are still seeking startups to take public.
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Billionaire Investor Seth Klarman Lambasts the Fed for Distorting Markets – and Says Tesla’s Stock has Surged ‘Seemingly Beyond All Reason’ (Business Insider)
A billionaire investor heralded as “the next Warren Buffett” blasted the Federal Reserve and Treasury in a private letter this week, accusing the duo of disrupting the stock market and putting investors at risk. Seth Klarman told clients of his Baupost hedge fund that investors are behaving as if risks have “simply vanished” due to rock-bottom interest rates and wave after wave of government stimulus, the Financial Times reported.
A Select Year for Alcur (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In 2020, the five top-performing Nordic hedge funds all delivered gains of at least 50 percent for the 12 months ended December 31. In third place at the end of 2020 was Alcur Select, which posted a return of about 70 percent, almost 20 percentage points higher than its first-place finish for 2019. The long-biased small-cap-focused equity fund managed by a Stockholm-based team led by Wilhelm Gruvberg has delivered a cumulative return of over 170 percent since launching in May of 2018, corresponding to an annualized return of 45 percent.
Starboard Seeks to Take Control of Corteva Board, Oust CEO (The Wall Street Journal)
Starboard Value LP is seeking to take control of agricultural giant Corteva Inc.’s board and replace its chief executive, according to people familiar with the matter. Starboard, led by CEO Jeff Smith, has privately nominated eight directors to Corteva’s 12-person board, the people said. Starboard is aiming to oust Corteva Chief Executive Jim Collins over what the activist says is mediocre performance. It has an unnamed replacement in mind.
Activist Engine Capital Sues Newly Formed Engine No. 1 Over Name (Bloomberg)
Activist investor Engine Capital Management is asking a judge to block another corporate agitator from calling itself Engine No. 1, saying the name could cause confusion in the investment community. San Francisco-based Engine No. 1, formed in December by tech investor Chris James, has threatened a proxy fight at Exxon Mobil Corp.
IHS Markit to Publish Daily Credit Spread Adjustment for SOFR from Q2 2021 (Institutional Asset Manager)
With less than a year until the anticipated end of many global interbank offered rates (IBOR), the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) has recommended the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) to replace USD LIBOR. Since its emergence in 2018, some liquidity in SOFR-linked financial instruments has developed, but many legacy products and industry segments are struggling to adapt to the new rate. As a leading index provider with a strong credit franchise, IHS Markit is well-positioned to help the industry overcome the challenges presented by SOFR – specifically by addressing the differences in a secured versus unsecured rate.
Buffett-Backed BYD Sells $3.9 Billion of Shares as EV Stocks Electrify (The Wall Street Journal)
BYD Co., a Chinese car maker backed by Warren Buffett, raised $3.9 billion from a stock sale, joining peers in capitalizing on investors’ bullishness about new-energy vehicles. The deal marks BYD’s biggest equity financing since it listed in Hong Kong in 2002. The company, whose stock also trades in Shenzhen, makes electric cars, batteries, plug-in hybrids and fossil-fuel-powered vehicles.
Thursday 1/21 Insider Buying Report: YORW, NYC (Nasdaq.com)
At York Water, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Tuesday, CEO & President Joseph Thomas Hand bought 249 shares of YORW, at a cost of $44.27 each, for a total investment of $11,027. So far Hand is in the green, up about 4.2% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $46.15. York Water is trading trading flat on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Hand purchased YORW at 5 other times during the past year, for a total cost of $35,842 at an average of $42.84 per share. And at New York City Reit, there was insider buying on Wednesday, by CEO Edward M. Weil Jr. who purchased 300 shares for a cost of $9.94 each, for a total investment of $2,980. Before this latest buy, Weil Jr. purchased NYC at 8 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $58,154 at an average of $12.35 per share. New York City Reit is trading up about 4.2% on the day Thursday.
The Chief Financial Officer of BlackBerry (NYSE: BB) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Chief Financial Officer of BlackBerry (BB), Steve Rai, sold shares of BB for $198.4K. Following Steve Rai’s last BB Sell transaction on October 05, 2020, the stock climbed by 8.3%. In addition to Steve Rai, 3 other BB executives reported Sell trades in the last month. The company has a one-year high of $13.64 and a one-year low of $2.70. The Company has a Price to Book ratio of 45.00.
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARNA) President and CEO Amit Munshi Sold $8 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President and CEO of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc, Amit Munshi, sold 100,000 shares of ARNA on 01/19/2021 at an average price of $80.19 a share. The total sale was $8 million. Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc is a biopharmaceutical company. The Company is engaged in discovering, developing and commercializing novel drugs that target G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, to address unmet medical needs.
Insider Trading Sentence of Vegas Gambler Commuted by Trump (Greenwich Time)
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A Las Vegas professional gambler, real estate mogul and philanthropist who was convicted in an insider trading case said Wednesday he’s grateful his prison sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump. William “Billy” Walters said in a statement issued through publicists that he’ll continue to pursue a lawsuit against federal law enforcement officials in New York who won his conviction in 2017 in a case that drew headlines for its ties to professional golfer Phil Mickelson.
