Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Mike Novogratz, George Soros, Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, Citadel LLC, Engine No. 1, Arthur J Gallagher & Co (AJG), Restaurant Brands International Inc (QSR), and More

Goldman Sachs Ramps Up Bitcoin Trading in New Partnership with Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital (CNBC)
Goldman Sachs’ efforts to help hedge funds and other big institutional clients wager on bitcoin have taken a step forward. The bank has begun trading bitcoin futures with Galaxy Digital, the crypto merchant bank founded by Mike Novogratz, CNBC has learned.

Billionaire Ray Dalio Wants Finance Execs to Accept that Pain is ‘a Teaching Mechanism’ (Financial News)
Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund boss behind Bridgewater Associates, has described pain as a “teaching mechanism” in a rallying call to financiers to accept when they are wrong and learn from their mistakes. The ever-colourful Dalio has become almost as well-known for his self-help tips as his investment strategies, having published best-selling books and developing personality tests alongside his fund management career.

Citadel’s Back on the Hunt for Miami Office Space (Commercial Observer)
Financial giant Citadel has expanded its office search to Miami Beach, Commercial Observer has learned. The hedge fund is considering the Related Group’s development on Terminal Island called One Island Park, according to multiple sources.

10 best cheap stocks to invest in February 2021

Pixabay/Public Domain

Hedge Fund Billionaire Steven Cohen Says He’s “Fully Converted” to Crypto (U.Today)
Point72 Asset Management boss Steve Cohen is “fully converted” to crypto, according to his recent interview with Stray Reflections founder Jawad Mian: I’m fully converted to crypto. You have to pay to learn; there’s no way around it. You can talk all you want, but you’ve got to get in the game. Cohen—whose net worth is estimated to be $14 billion—claims that he doesn’t care about the Bitcoin price since no one actually knows when it’s going to go up. The legendary hedge fund is mainly focused on the disruptive potential of the blockchain technology.

The Investment Chief Overseeing George Soros’s $27 Billion Firm Says Mega-Cap Tech Stocks are Cheap Compared to Late-Stage Private Firms — and Taps them as Her Top Pick for the Next Decade (Business Insider)
The woman who manages the fortune of one of the world’s richest men said she recommends steering clear of late-stage private companies and thinks large-cap tech companies are a strong long-term investment. Dawn Fitzpatrick — the chief investment officer for Soros Fund Management, which runs billionaire George Soros‘s vast fortune — said that while March of 2020 was a time for action, June of 2021 is a time for patience. Speaking at the New York poverty-fighting charity Robin Hood’s annual conference Wednesday, Fitzpatrick said Soros is in the process of rebuilding its cash reserves after putting money to work last spring when the pandemic shut down the global economy.

Calstrs’s Crucial Phone Call Eased Path for Activist’s Exxon Win (Bloomberg)
At the height of the proxy battle led by investment fund Engine No. 1 to name a slate of dissident directors with environmental and energy experience to the board of Exxon Mobil Corp., in March, the oil giant suddenly added two more climate-aware members to its board.

Venture Capital in Asia-Pacific: Value Beyond Capital (Preqin)
In the early years of VC in Asia, few investors had either the capital or the risk appetite to back disruptively transformational start-ups with the potential to be global champions. Key infrastructure and supporting industries were missing, while foreign investors mostly stayed on the side lines, bar a few that ventured into China. The tide turned in the late 2000s, and focus turned to the emerging Asia-Pacific region, particularly Southeast Asia and India. We saw the potential for emerging innovation hubs and started allocating capital to opportunities in China, Southeast Asia, and India in 2008, backed by initial capital of $200mn from Temasek.

Amazon Securities Fraud Case Prompts Look at Insider Trading (The Great Courses Daily)
A man, whose wife had access to insider knowledge about Amazon, was sentenced to 26 months in prison, last week. His wife had used that information to make a profit of $1.4 million between 2016 and 2018. He pleaded guilty last year to securities fraud after breaking trade blackout restrictions. Insider trading laws in the United States are more of a patchwork than they are in many other countries. In the United States, some incidents are allowed while others aren’t. In his video series Law School for Everyone: Corporate Law, Professor George S. Geis, the William S. Potter Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, gave examples to help explain.

Friday 6/18 Insider Buying Report: QSR, FGBI (Nasdaq.com)
At Restaurant Brands International, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, Director John F. Prato bought 3,000 shares of QSR, for a cost of $67.91 each, for a total investment of $203,730. Investors have the opportunity to bag QSR at a price even lower than Prato did, with shares trading as low as $66.75 in trading on Friday — that’s 1.7% below Prato’s purchase price. Restaurant Brands International is trading down about 1.6% on the day Friday. And at First Guaranty Bancshares, there was insider buying on Monday, by Director William K. Hood who bought 9,502 shares at a cost of $19.35 each, for a total investment of $183,864. Before this latest buy, Hood bought FGBI at 3 other times during the past twelve months, for a total cost of $207,892 at an average of $18.58 per share. First Guaranty Bancshares is trading off about 1.8% on the day Friday. Bargain hunters are able to snag FGBI even cheaper than Hood did, with shares trading as low as $18.75 in trading on Friday which is 3.1% below Hood’s purchase price.

Investor Couple Fined After Losing Money on Insider Trade (Caixin Global)
The fact that Ren Yiguo lost more than 50,000 yuan ($7,704) on a stock trade has not stopped securities regulators from slapping him and his wife with a 300,000 yuan fine for insider trading. Ren, 51, was penalized for a nearly 2 million yuan purchase of Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (Chifeng Gold) (600988.SH -0.58%) shares that was made with his wife’s brokerage account in March 2019, just before the company acquired another firm he held a stake in, according to an announcement (link in Chinese) released last week by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

SEC Busts Alleged Silicon Valley Insider Trading Ring (AI-CIO.com)
With the help of “sophisticated data analysis” the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was able to break up an insider trading ring that generated nearly $1.7 million in illegal gains by trading on the confidential earnings information of Silicon Valley tech companies Infinera Corporation and Fortinet Inc. According to the SEC’s complaint, Nathaniel Brown, who was the revenue recognition manager for San Jose, California-based telecommunications equipment company Infinera Corporation, repeatedly provided information about the company’s quarterly earnings and financial performance before they were made public to his best friend, Benjamin Wylam, a high school teacher and bookmaker.

The VP of Arthur J Gallagher & Co (NYSE: AJG) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the VP of Arthur J Gallagher & Co (AJG), Scott Hudson, sold shares of AJG for $1.37M. Following Scott Hudson’s last AJG Sell transaction on March 04, 2021, the stock climbed by 21.6%. In addition to Scott Hudson, one other AJG executive reported Sell trades in the last month. Based on Arthur J Gallagher & Co’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending March 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $2.16 billion and quarterly net profit of $382 million.

Celsius Holdings Inc (CELH) CFO Edwin Negron-carballo Sold $9.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CFO of Celsius Holdings Inc, Edwin Negron-carballo, sold 150,000 shares of CELH on 06/14/2021 at an average price of $62.5 a share. The total sale was $9.4 million.