Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Stanley Druckenmiller, Crispin Odey, Ken Griffin, Michael Hintze, Ray Dalio, Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI), and More

Hintze’s CQS Hedge Fund Firm Unveils New Total Return Credit Strategy After Bruising 2020 (Hedge Week)
CQS, Sir Michael Hintze’s long-running multi-strategy credit-focused hedge fund firm, has launched a new actively-managed strategy which aims to generate higher returns across corporate sub-investment grade opportunities against a backdrop of increased volatility and unpredictable markets. The CQS Total Return Credit Fund targets a range of geographies, asset classes and sectors, across various ratings classes, using a bottom-up, fundamental research process.

Stanley Druckenmiller Bets on Disney and Cybersecurity, Dumps Netflix. Here are His Latest Moves (CNBC)
Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller still has big bets on tech giants but sold one of the space’s biggest names during the fourth quarter – Netflix. According to a regulatory filing released Tuesday, Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office had 12 long positions worth more than $100 million at the end of the year.

Hedge Fund Boss Odey ‘Lunged’ at Woman in 1998 Indecent Assault, Trial Hears (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) – Crispin Odey, one of Britain’s most high-profile hedge fund managers and political donors, “lunged” at a 26-year-old female bank employee in 1998 and indecently assaulted her, a prosecutor told a London trial on Wednesday. Odey, 62, a muti-millionaire backer of Brexit who donated to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, denies a single charge of indecent assault.

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For Griffin’s Return to Washington, Citadel Is a ‘Bigger Target’ (Bloomberg)
The reach of Citadel founder Ken Griffin’s empire was on full display during the rise and fall of GameStop Corp. — and Washington took note. One of his businesses executed many of the trades that drove the retailer’s shares into the stratosphere last month, while another provided a $2 billion lifeline to a hedge fund that got crushed by the stock surge. But such pervasiveness poses a threat as lawmakers seek to determine whether the Reddit-fueled trading frenzy was just a blip, or a sign that something is broken on Wall Street.

Ray Dalio’s Hedge Fund Unloaded its Stake in Tesla and Poured Millions into Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan in the 4th-Quarter (Business Insider)
Ray Dalio‘s Bridgewater Associates sold its stake in Tesla and bought new positions in banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs in the fourth-quarter, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, now holds a $52 million stake in JPMorgan, a $17 million stake in Goldman Sachs, and a $19 million stake in Morgan Stanley.

Month in Review – January 2021 (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After logging their best annual performance since 2009, Nordic hedge funds started 2021 on a positive note with an average gain of 0.6 percent in January (97 percent reported). Equity hedge funds, the largest strategy group within the Nordic Hedge Index, led the gains last month, continuing their momentum into 2021 after enjoying their second-best year on record with an advance of 16.1 percent in 2020.

Alden Global Capital Agrees to Buy Rest of Tribune Publishing (The Wall Street Journal)
A New York hedge fund that is the largest shareholder in Tribune Publishing Co. has reached a deal to acquire the rest of the newspaper company which owns some of the biggest papers in the country, including the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News. Alden Global Capital LLC, which already owned a 32% stake in the company, reached an agreement with a special committee appointed by the board to buy the rest of the company for $17.25 a share, valuing the company at around $630 million. The deal still requires shareholder approval.

Hedge Fund Performance Update: January 2021 (Preqin)
The Preqin All-Strategies hedge fund benchmark returned +2.14% in January, building on December’s return of +4.08% and pushing the 12-month return to +18.90%. This heatmap presents the hedge fund performance benchmarks for January 2021. Plus, the YTD and 12-month returns for all top-level strategies, structures, denominations, and size classifications.

Activist Investor Jana Partners Builds New Stake in Labcorp (Bloomberg)
Jana Partners has built a new position in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, the latest investment in the health-care space for the activist investor. The New York-based hedge fund said in a regulatory filing Tuesday it owned a stake in the clinical laboratory company valued at about $192 million. Labcorp was Jana’s fourth-largest investment at the end of December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Billionaire David Tepper Bought Energy Stocks in the Fourth Quarter — Here are His Top Holdings (CNBC)
Billionaire investor David Tepper trimmed some of his biggest positions in the fourth quarter while increasing his bets on energy stocks, according to a new securities filing released Tuesday. Tepper’s Appaloosa Management released its holdings for the end of December, showing that T-Mobile was the fund’s largest position.

Wednesday 2/17 Insider Buying Report: CINF, CZWI (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Cincinnati Financial’s , Dirk J. Debbink, made a $35,083 purchase of CINF, buying 383 shares at a cost of $91.60 each. Cincinnati Financial is trading up about 0.6% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Debbink purchased CINF on 5 other occasions during the past year, for a total cost of $340,565 at an average of $77.08 per share. And also on Friday, Director James R. Lang purchased $21,960 worth of Citizens Community Bancorp, purchasing 2,000 shares at a cost of $10.98 each. This purchase marks the first one filed by Lang in the past twelve months. Citizens Community Bancorp is trading up about 0.2% on the day Wednesday. So far Lang is in the green, up about 2.2% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $11.22.

The SVP & Controller of Sirius XM Holdings (NASDAQ: SIRI) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the SVP & Controller of Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI), BARRY THOMAS, sold shares of SIRI for $730.9K. Based on Sirius XM Holdings’ latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $2.19 billion and GAAP net loss of -$677,000,000. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $2.06 billion and had a net profit of $243 million. SIRI’s market cap is $24.8 billion and the company has a P/E ratio of 203.00. The company has a one-year high of $8.14 and a one-year low of $4.11.

Dinan’s York Plans to Sell CLO Unit Months After Hedge Fund Exit (Blooomberg)
Jamie Dinan’s investment firm York Capital Management is in talks to sell its collateralized-loan obligations division — just months after it exited the hedge fund business. York has held discussions with potential buyers for its CLO platform, which oversees about $4 billion in assets, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The firm will seek to retain a minority stake in the business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Insider Trading Tipster Brothers Walk Away With Millions (1) (Bloomberg Law)
As securities trader Joseph El Khouri waits to hear if he’ll be extradited to New York to face insider-dealing charges, the two French brothers who brought him hot tips get to go scot-free and keep the millions they made. John and Kevin Dodelande, who funneled M&A secrets from London bankers to traders including El Khouri, entered a pact that allows them to avoid U.S. prosecution and keep millions of dollars in payments they got for their tips, according to a filing by El Khouri’s lawyers. The deal secured in exchange for cooperation is the latest strand in the painstaking pursuit…