A Fund Manager Beating 90% of his Rivals Told Us Why He Actively Avoids Companies with Giant Profit Margins — and Shares 5 Stocks He Thinks will Keep Winning for Years (Business Insider)
One of the best ways to get a struggling stock to turn around is a big improvement in its profitability. After all, one reason investors love tech stocks is that they’re remarkably efficient at making tons of money. But is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? Fund manager David Dudding of Columbia Threadneedle Investments says that sometimes, fantastic profit margins are a warning sign. While he’s naturally looking for profitable companies and has substantial investments in tech, he says he wants to see companies that are planning ahead.
Elliott Seeks Perfect Home for Rent-to-Own Retailer (MSN Money)
PerfectHome, the online rent-to-own retailer which became Britain’s biggest following the collapse of BrightHouse earlier this year, is being put up for sale by its hedge fund owner. Sky News has learnt that an affiliate of Elliott Advisors, which has owned Perfect Home since 2018, has kicked off an auction of the chain. The auction comes seven months after BrightHouse became one of the first corporate casualties of the coronavirus pandemic. Its demise cost 2,400 employees their jobs and triggered the closure of 240 shops around the country.
Quiksilver Owner Sued Over Oaktree-Backed Rescue Deal (The Wall Street Journal)
Investors sued Boardriders Inc., the company behind the Quiksilver and Billabong brands, over a $431 million rescue financing package they said elevated the interests of a select group of lenders and private-equity backer Oaktree Capital Management LP. Intermediate Capital Group PLC, York Capital Management and other lenders filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York on Friday, challenging an August financing deal that supplied the surfwear-inspired apparel company with $110 million in fresh capital from a group of lenders.
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Norron’s Multibagger (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Investing directly into unlisted privately-held businesses can sometimes be more lucrative than investing in publicly-traded businesses. Swedish asset manager Norron Asset Management, for instance, has seen its first unlisted holding – Norwegian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Vaccibody – surge in value by approximately 2,000 percent since investing in the company in December 2016. Norron Asset Management, which now owns about 1.4 percent of Vaccibody across its long/short equity funds – Norron Select and Norron Target – and its recently-launched long-only equity fund Norron Sustainable Equity, first invested in the Norwegian biotech company in December 2016. “This holding was the first one we invested in using our unlisted holding strategy,” writes the team at Norron. “The reason for our initial investment was the very promising fundamental research that the company was able to present at that stage in the pre-clinical phase concerning personalized cancer vaccines.”
Dalio Says ‘Time Is on China’s Side’ in Power Struggle With U.S. (Bloomberg)
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said China has an advantage over the U.S. on a range of issues. “Time is on China’s side and it’s not on the United States’ side, for various developments,” Dalio said Monday in a conversation with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at the Milken Institute Global Conference. “What’s going to be a difficult situation in the new administration is destiny is on the side of China growing, and doing better probably.”
In Hedge Funds, Success No Longer Depends on Size, as Biggest Managers Fall Behind Industry Average in 2020 (Hedge Week)
The biggest hedge fund managers are still lagging behind the wider industry’s performance on average in 2020, with larger strategies having fallen into the red over the past nine months while the industry overall is in positive territory, as hedge fund strategies of all stripes gave up some of their summer gains in September, according to new industry data. The ten largest hedge funds reporting performance to eVestment lost 1.06 per cent in September, generally in line with the wider hedge fund industry, which fell just over 1 per cent.
Private Equity Fund Investing in the Age of COVID and Beyond (Preqin.com)
After dealing with the pandemic for several months and with no end in sight, LPs and GPs alike are having to rethink the way they do business and evaluate new opportunities. Organizations are being forced to adapt to a virtual world, which poses challenges but also offers advantages. When the pandemic fades and things progress to a new normal, some of the changes we have seen will likely remain, and it may well be to our benefit.
Insider Moves: Datasonic Group Bhd, Pasukhas Group Bhd, Sapura Energy Bhd, Euro Holdings Bhd, Metronic Global Bhd (TheEdgeMarkets.com)
Notable filings: FROM Sept 21 to 25, notable shareholding changes of companies listed on Bursa Malaysia included that of Datasonic Group Bhd, whose deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben acquired 70.42 million shares from Hallmark Epitome Sdn Bhd – a company linked to him – for RM1 each via a direct business transaction. As a result, Hallmark Epitome ceased to be a substantial shareholder. Chew, who has been accumulating Datasonic shares over the last few months, now holds a direct interest of 22.37%, or 294.7 million shares, in the company compared with 16.96% as at June 15. Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd is the second-largest shareholder, with a 9.42% stake.
Royce Micro-cap Trust Inc (RMT) CEO – Investment Advisor Christopher D Clark Bought $84,000 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO – Investment Advisor of Royce Micro Capital Trust Inc. (NYSE: RMT), Christopher D Clark, bought 10,000 shares of RMT on 10/12/2020 at an average price of $8.4 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $84,000. Royce Micro-Cap Trust Inc is a diversified closed-end investment company. It is engaged in investing in micro-cap securities. The company distributes capital gains on a quarterly basis.
The Chief Investment Officer of Hargreaves Lansdown (Other OTC: HRGLF) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Chief Investment Officer of Hargreaves Lansdown (HRGLF), Lee Gardhouse, sold shares of HRGLF for $1.87M. The company has a one-year high of $27.71 and a one-year low of $13.82. Currently, Hargreaves Lansdown has an average volume of . The Company has a Price to Book ratio of 13.83.
Insider Weekends: Liquidity Services Rises Sharply Following CEO Purchase (Seeking Alpha)
Insider buying decreased last week. Notable Insider Buys: Element Solutions Inc, Selecta Biosciences, Inc., Liquidity Services, Inc., Medtronic PLC, Amazon.com, Inc. Notable Insider Sells: Paycom Software, Inc., Smartsheet Inc., Salesforce.com, Inc., Natera, Inc., Goosehead Insurance, Inc. Insider buying decreased last week, with insiders purchasing $60.83 million of stock compared to $119.27 million in the week prior. This is the second week in a row we have seen a decline in insider buying. This decline in buying is probably a combination of the market once again approaching all-time highs and earnings-related quiet periods at a lot of companies. Selling increased, with insiders selling $1.74 billion of stock last week compared to $1.69 billion in the week prior.
