Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE:VRX) made financial journalists’ day when it cratered following short seller Citron’s hyperbolic report. Bill Ackman isn’t the most modest fund manager in the world, yet it’s a shame to see the joy in the media when reporting Ackman’s nearly $2 billion loss. Hedge funds collectively made more than $3.8 billion in Amazon since the end of the second quarter, yet we haven’t seen a single article about this fact. By the way, Amazon (AMZN) returned 38% since the end of the second quarter but billionaires Halvorsen, Cohen, Fisher and other managers probably got “lucky” when they invested more than $10 billion in the company. We also haven’t seen any reports about hedge funds’ $5.7 billion profit in Alphabet Inc (GOOG). I guess it isn’t news when a dog bites a man but it is big news when hedge funds lost billions. So, we have news for you.
In this article we will share the list of 25 stocks that did the most damage to hedge fund portfolios since the end of the second quarter. This list is ideal for journalists who’d like to cherry pick hedge fund bets that failed spectacularly. Collectively hedge funds lost $52 billion by betting on these 25 stocks. In order to create this list we considered only those stocks that were owned by at least 50 hedge funds and that lost at least 10% since the end of June. Each of these companies costed hedge funds at least $850 million. Below we listed the names of the hedge funds/billionaire investors who were among the top 5 holders of each stock in our database. More interestingly we created another “hedge fund misery ranking” listing the hedge funds that appeared the most among the top holders of each of these stocks. One hedge fund manager had very large positions in 9 of these 25 stocks. Click here to find out this billionaire investor’s name. Here is our countdown:
25. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
Total Hedge Fund Loses: $855 million
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $7.3 billion
Return: -11.8%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Warren Buffett, Lansdowne Partners, Greenhaven Associates, Boykin Curry, Richard Pzena
24. CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $947 million
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $4.3 billion
Return: -21.9%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Highfields Capital, Soroban Capital, billionaire Larry Robbins, Chieftain Capital, Brahman Capital
23. Whiting Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:WLL)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $961 million
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $2.2 billion
Return: -44.2%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire John Paulson, billionaire Ken Griffin, billionaire Andreas Halvorsen, Balyasny Asset Management, Point State Capital.
By the way, Point State Capital’s Zach Schreiber successfully predicted the decline in oil prices a year and a half ago at the Ira Sohn Conference. If there are journalists who’d like to pen a sarcastic article about Schreiber, this is your chance.
Follow Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)
Follow Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)
22. Perrigo Company (NYSE:PRGO)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $969 million
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $4.8 billion
Return: -20.0%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire James Dinan, billionaire Daniel Och, Pentwater Capital, Visium Asset Management, Highfields Capital
21. Community Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CYH)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $1.7 billion
Return: -58.2%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Larry Robbins, billionaire Richard Perry, Highline Capital, TPG-Axon, OrbiMed Advisors
20. Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE:BKD)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $2.7 billion
Return: -37.6%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Larry Robbins, billionaire Barry Rosenstein, billionaire Daniel Och, billionaires Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis, Steadfast Capital
19. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $6.2 billion
Return: -16.6%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Daniel Och, billionaire Barry Rosenstein, billionaire David Einhorn, First Eagle, Coatue Management
18. Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $3.6 billion
Return: -31.5%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: OrbiMed Advisors, billionaire Cliff Asness, billionaire Israel Englander, Adage Capital, billionaire Andreas Halvorsen
17. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $5 billion
Return: -22.9%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Cantillon Capital, billionaire Rob Citrone, Scopia Capital, Orbis Investment Management, billionaire Kerr Neilson
16. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.5 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $5.9 billion
Return: -19.4%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Daniel Och, Luxor Capital, Owl Creek Asset Management, Mason Capital, billionaire David Shaw
15. HCA Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.4
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $5 billion
Return: -27.2%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Larry Robbins, OrbiMed Advisors, billionaire Stephen Mandel, billionaire John Paulson, billionaire David Tepper
14. Illumina, Inc. (ILMN)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.4 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $3.9 billion
Return: -34.9%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Stephen Mandel, billionaire Andreas Halvorsen, OrbiMed Advisors, Coatue Management, Columbus Circle Investors
13. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.4 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $8.5 billion
Return: -16.4%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Warren Buffett, Billionaire Bill Gates, Masters Capital, Alyeska Investment Group, Richard Pzena
12. Platform Specialty Products Corporation (PAH)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.4 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $2.6 billion
Return: -54.9%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Bill Ackman, billionaire John Griffin, Corvex Capital, billionaire Daniel Och, Horizon Asset Management
11. Endo International (ENDP)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.6 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $4.5 billion
Return: -35.4%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Daniel Och, billionaire Larry Robbins, billionaire John Griffin, Visium Asset Management, billionaire Stephen Mandel
10. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.6 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $14.8 billion
Return: -10.7%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Warren Buffett, Prem Watsa, Diamond Hill, Adage Capital, billionaire David Shaw
9. AbbVie Inc. (ABBV)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.7 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $6.1 billion
Return: -27.0%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Larry Robbins, Baker Brothers, OrbiMed Advisors, Point State Capital, Brookside Capital
8. Liberty Global (LBTYK)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.7 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $9.7 billion
Return: -17.2%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Boykin Curry, SPO Advisory, billionaire David Shaw, Orbis Investment Management, First Eagle
7. Mylan N.V. (MYL)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $1.9
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $4.6
Return: -42.3%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire John Paulson, Pentwater Capital, billionaire James Dinan, Roystone Capital, Fir Tree
6. JD.com, Inc. (JD)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $2.7 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $11.8 billion
Return: -23.2%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Lei Zhang, billionaire Chase Coleman, billionaire Stephen Mandel, Coatue Management, Emerging Sovereign Group
Lei Zhang’s position in the stock was close to $5 billion, so his loss was more than $1 billion assuming he didn’t sell any of his holdings.
5. Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $3 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $9 billion
Return: -33.6%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Seth Klarman, billionaire Andreas Halvorsen, Point State Capital, billionaire Stephen Mandel, Kensico Capital
4. Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $3.2 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $10.6 billion
Return: -29.7%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Corvex Capital, Soroban Capital, billionaire Stephen Mandel, billionaire Richard Perry, Senator Investment Group
3. Allergan plc. (AGN)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $3.4 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $20.7 billion
Return: -16.6%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaires John Paulson, Andreas Halvorsen, Daniel Och, Dan Loeb, and Stephen Mandel
2. SunEdison, Inc. (SUNE)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $4.2 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $5.7 billion
Return: -73.9%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire David Einhorn, billionaire Dan Loeb, billionaire Larry Robbins, billionaire Stephen Mandel, Fir Tree
1. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (VRX)
Total Hedge Fund Losses: $11.1 billion
Total Value of Hedge Fund Positions: $22 billion
Return: -50.5%
Biggest Hedge Fund Holders: Billionaire Bill Ackman, billionaire Jeff Ubben, billionaire John Paulson, Brave Warrior Capital, billionaire Stephen Mandel
