Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Steve Cohen, Dan Loeb, Kyma Capital, Elliott Management, Renaissance Technologies, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNQ), Driven Brands Holdings Inc (DRVN), and More

Cohen Fires Mets’ New General Manager in Lewd-Texts Scandal (Bloomberg)
The New York Mets terminated General Manager Jared Porter, according to billionaire owner Steve Cohen, acting swiftly on a report that the new team executive sent explicit and unsolicited text messages to a reporter in 2016. ESPN reported Monday that Porter sent the messages while he was employed by the Chicago Cubs. Porter, 41, acknowledged to ESPN that he sent pictures to the woman but said the more explicit ones weren’t of himself.

Warren Buffett Doesn’t Believe in Hedge Funds (The Motley Fool)
Warren Buffett often happens to negate the broader investor sentiment. The Oracle of Omaha has made investment decisions over the years that initially seem surprising but end up turning out to be well thought out. Buffett also has a very strong opinion on several things. Buffett hates gold, he considers Bitcoin to be rat poison, and he just does not believe in quant hedge funds.

Billionaire Hedge Funder Dan Loeb Buys Waterfront Miami Beach Estate: Sources (The Real Deal)
Spec home developer Peter Fine sold a Miami Beach mansion to billionaire hedge fund manager Dan Loeb for $20 million, The Real Deal has learned. Fine’s 6440 NBR LLC sold the six-bedroom, 13,386-square-foot home at 6440 North Bay Road to a Delaware entity named after the address. Sources confirmed the buyer is Loeb, founder and CEO of Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund.

Countries with the Smallest Government Per Capita in the World

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Hedge Fund Kyma Capital to Take Vedanta Dispute to U.S. Regulators (Reuters)
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Kyma Capital, founded by former Blackstone trader Akshay Shah, is set to complain to U.S. regulators in a dispute with Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal over nearly $1 billion in loans by Vedanta Limited to its parent company, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Kyma Capital, a London-based hedge fund that owns shares in Vedanta Limited, plans to lodge its complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February and seek repayment of four loans totalling $956 million made by Vedanta Limited via its overseas subsidiaries to parent Vedanta Resources.

Volt’s Electric Year (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In a volatile year characterized by a sudden sharp correction in equity markets followed by an equally sudden – albeit not so sharp – recovery, equity hedge fund strategies were the stand-outs last year. Equity hedge funds almost entirely dominated the list of last year’s top ten best performers in the Nordic hedge fund industry. “Almost” because one fund from the CTA crowd stood out and made the industry’s top ten list.

Hedge Fund Elliott Pulls out of Hong Kong – FT (Reuters)
Jan 19 (Reuters) – Activist hedge fund Elliott Management is shutting down its Hong Kong office following a period of civil unrest and political tension that started in 2019 in the region , the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing a memo. Elliott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Renaissance Says Losses Should Have Been Expected at Some Point (The Wall Street Journal)
Quant pioneer Renaissance Technologies LLC sent clients an analysis of its performance and a rationalization of recent deep losses, an unusual move for one of Wall Street’s most secretive firms. In the letter sent late Friday, the firm said losses of between 20% and 30% in 2020 for its three funds open to outside investors should have been expected at some point during the course of the funds’ histories. The letter partly blamed heightened volatility for the weak performance.

Hedge Fund Inflows Surge Amid Equity Valuation Concerns, JPMorgan Says (Institutional Investor)
J.P. Morgan Asset Management saw record capital flowing into its hedge funds during the last two weeks of 2020 and into the first half of January, according to Anton Pil, the global head of the bank’s alternative investing arm. Investors are viewing hedge funds as a counterweight to stretched valuations in equities, embracing them as a diversification strategy on the expectation that they will produce more yield than fixed income, Pil said in a phone interview.

Tuesday 1/19 Insider Buying Report: DRVN, CCEL (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Driven Brands’ Director, Rick D. Puckett, made a $420,000 purchase of DRVN, buying 15,000 shares at a cost of $28.00 each. Bargain hunters are able to grab DRVN at a price even lower than Puckett did, with the stock trading as low as $25.30 in trading on Tuesday which is 9.6% under Puckett’s purchase price. Driven Brands is trading down about 0.2% on the day Tuesday. And on Thursday, Chairman, Co-CEO David Portnoy purchased $123,555 worth of Cryo-cell Intl, purchasing 15,500 shares at a cost of $7.97 a piece. Before this latest buy, Portnoy purchased CCEL at 9 other times during the past year, for a total investment of $645,080 at an average of $7.80 per share. Cryo-cell is trading up about 2.9% on the day Tuesday. So far Portnoy is in the green, up about 1.0% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $8.05.

The Chief Executive Officer of NuLegacy Gold (Other OTC: NULGF) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Chief Executive Officer of NuLegacy Gold (NULGF), Albert Matter, sold shares of NULGF for $565.8K. This is Matter’s first Sell trade following 8 Buy transactions. Currently, NuLegacy Gold has an average volume of 188.00K. In the last 30 days, insiders have sold $565.8K worth of NULGF shares and purchased $1.1M worth of NULGF shares. The insider sentiment on NuLegacy Gold has been positive according to 14 insider trades in the past three months. This sentiment is slightly higher than the average sentiment of company insiders in this sector.

The President of Canadian Natural (NYSE: CNQ) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the President of Canadian Natural (CNQ), Stephen W Laut, sold shares of CNQ for $334.4K. In addition to Stephen W Laut, 4 other CNQ executives reported Sell trades in the last month. Over the last month, Stephen W Laut has reported another 3 Sell trades on CNQ for a total of $511.1K.

SEC Awards Nearly $600,000 to Whistleblower (HedgeCo.net)
HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced an award of nearly $600,000 to a whistleblower whose tip led to the success of an enforcement action. The whistleblower substantially contributed to an open investigation by providing detailed and highly valuable information resulting in critical investigative leads. “The whistleblower met with staff multiple times and provided substantial assistance to the investigation that led to the SEC’s enforcement action,” said Jane Norberg, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “Since the beginning of October, the Commission has awarded 28 individuals over $176 million in whistleblower awards, which already surpasses the total dollar amount awarded in the entirety of any prior fiscal year. We hope these awards continue to encourage individuals with information regarding possible securities laws violations to report to the Commission.”