After losing money last year and during the first half of 2015, Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) is undergoing leadership changes. Michael Novogratz will be the sole manager of the main macro hedge fund of the investment manager after the departure of Jeff Feig, co-manager of the fund. According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal sources have told it that the Fortress Macro Fund is down about 10% thus far this year due in part to poor currency trades. The sources also said the fund began the year with $3.2 billion in assets, including related accounts, but currently manages just $2.3 billion as investors have pulled their money out of the firm. The macro hedge fund had a dismal start to the year, with the fund reporting losses in excess of 7.9% during the first half of January alone. The portfolio maintained by Novogratz didn’t incur losses during that period. As compared with the other macro hedge funds in the market, Fortress lost 1.6% in 2014 against average gains of 5.7%. In terms of share price growth, Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) has lost 10.22% year-to-date.
At the end of the first quarter, the investment manager had a public equity portfolio valued at $7.21 billion, with 88% of its portfolio positions dedicated to the finance sector. Springleaf Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEAF) and Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM) were the two primary equity holdings of Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), and accounted for much of its losses during the second quarter. The results reported by the Wall Street Journal are not a surprise, and are consistent with our own data which found that Fortress Group’s 41 long positions in stocks with a $1 billion or greater market cap suffered a weighted average returns loss of 13.36% in the second quarter, ranking the firm as the 6th-worst performing fund among those we track at Insider Monkey during that period. It should be noted that our own methodology is only an estimate, and does not factor in all of a fund’s holdings or moves when calculating the returns.
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Springleaf Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEAF) was in the number one spot in the equity portfolio of Fortress Investment Group. The fund manager held 73.44 million shares in its portfolio, with a market value of $3.80 billion at the end of the first quarter. The shares of Springleaf Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEAF) have grown 34.06% year-to-date, however those gains came during a big first quarter; shares actually declined by 11.31% during the second quarter. Smart money maintained a bullish outlook on the stock, with aggregate hedge fund holdings increasing to $3.97 billion by the end of the first quarter compared to the holdings of $2.76 billion a quarter earlier, though as mentioned, the big appreciation of the company’s shares during that time accounted for those gains. Springleaf Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEAF) did lose one hedge fund investor in the first quarter with 15 hedge fund managers holding a position in the company by the end of it. Michael Barnes & Arif Inayatullah’s Tricadia Capital Management was another shareholder of the company, with a position including 1.45 million shares valued at $74.97 million at the end of the first quarter.
Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM) comes at number two in the equity portfolio of Fortress Investment Group, which owned 67.58 million shares of the company valued at $1.67 billion and representing 74.27% of the outstanding shares of the company. It also represented 23.2% of the fund’s public equity portfolio, and over 75% when combined with the firm’s Springleaf holding. The shares of the real estate company have suffered throughout 2015, with shares declining by 37.79% year-to-date, and by 32.18% in the second quarter alone. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management reported heavy buying of the company’s shares in June on their weakness, with Cohen’s current position in the company including 5.64 million shares, much higher than his reported ownership of 718,300 shares in his previous 13F filing. He is also among the major stockholders of the company, now owning 5.2% of the outstanding common shares of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc (NYSE:NSM).
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