market folly

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here).

Time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series! If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital here, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital here, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here. Next up, we have BP Capital. With all the commotion surrounding energy these days, it never hurts to track an energy focused hedge fund ran by none other than Boone Pickens. If you are unfamiliar with Pickens, he is an energy maverick and his fund returned 300% in 2005. He is a big advocate of Peak Oil Theory and runs an energy-centric hedge fund based in Dallas, Texas. Although he typically holds numerous positions in oil, he is also big on alternative energy (except ethanol) and has numerous holdings there as well. He most recently advocated a large natural gas position and has additionally made a big bet on wind energy. Some of his thoughts can be seen here from one of my posts. And, if you didn't know, he's pushing for energy independence with his Pickens Plan.

So, now that we've got a little background on Boone and BP Capital, let's see what they were up to. The following are BP Capital's current holdings as of June 30th 2008, as released in their most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The positions in this most recent 13F were compared to last quarter's 13F and here are the changes made to their portfolio:

New Positions:
BPZ Resources (BZP): 350,000 shares. This position is 0.48% of BP's portfolio.
EOG Resources (EOG): 322,266 shares. This position is 1.9% of BP's portfolio.
Tenaris (TS): 1,106,394 shares. This position is 3.88% of BP's portfolio.
Devon Energy (DVN): 845,946 shares. This position is 4.79% of BP's portfolio.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 1,838,129 shares. This position is 5.7% of BP's portfolio.


Added to:
Occidental Petroleum (OXY): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 8.7% of their portfolio.
Transocean (RIG): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 8% of their portfolio.
Suncor (SU): Increased position by 105.7% (due to 2:1 stock split). Now 7% of their portfolio.
Schlumberger (SLB): Increased position by 11.6%. Now 6.5% of their portfolio.
Halliburton (HAL): Increased position by 65.7%. Now 6.1% of their portfolio.
Denbury Resources (DNR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 5.4% of their portfolio.
Weatherford (WFT): Increased position by 250%. Now 4.5% of their portfolio.
XTO Energy (XTO): Increased position by 66.66%. Now 3.85% of their portfolio.
Talisman Energy (TLM): Increased position by 19.8%. Now 3.78% of their portfolio.
ABB (ABB): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.65% of their portfolio.
Jacobs Engineering (JEC): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.55% of their portfolio.
Sandridge Energy (SD): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 3.2% of their portfolio.
Fluor (FLR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 2.75% of their portfolio.
Foster Wheeler (FWLT): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 2.57% of their portfolio.
Shaw Group (SGR): Increased position by 17.6%. Now 2.34% of their portfolio.
Chevron (CVX): Increased position by 2.8%. Now 2.11% of their portfolio.
Dresser Rand (DRC): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.79% of their portfolio.
McMoran Exploration (MMR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.35% of their portfolio.
KBR (KBR): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 1.05% of their portfolio.
Greenbrier Companies (GBX): Increased position by 2.88%. Now 0.56% of their portfolio.


Reduced Positions:
none


Removed Positions (Positions BP sold out of completely):
Titanium Metals (TIE)


Positions with no change:
InterOil Corp (IOC): 1.3% of the portfolio
Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE): 0.2% of the portfolio


Top 10 holdings by % of portfolio:
1. Occidental Petroleum (OXY): 8.7% of the portfolio
2. Transocean (RIG): 8% of the portfolio
3. Suncor (SU): 7% of the portfolio
4. Schlumberger (SLB): 6.5% of the portfolio
5. Halliburton (HAL): 6.1% of the portfolio
6. Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 5.7% of the portfolio
7. Denbury Resources (DNR): 5.4% of the portfolio
8. Devon Energy (DVN): 4.79% of the portfolio
9. Weatherford Intl (WFT): 4.5% of the portfolio
10. Tenaris (TS): 3.88% of the portfolio

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Breakdown: T. Boone Pickens didn't do a whole lot of selling. In fact, he only made one sale: Titanium Metals (TIE), which he completely sold out of. But, in terms of selling... that's it. He didn't reduce any of his other positions at all. Whether he was hoarding cash or funding other purchases with his sale of TIE, who knows. But, what we do know, is that he was out adding various new positions and boosting stakes in current holdings. In terms of new holdings, Boone started some big positions in Tenaris (TS), Devon (DVN), and Chesapeake (CHK). All three positions were large enough to land in the top 10 of portfolio holdings after just being added last quarter. In terms of adding to existing holdings, Boone was adding heavily to XTO Energy (XTO), and Weatherford (WFT). He boosted his positions in XTO by 66% and in WFT by 250%. His top three holdings are Transocean (RIG), Occidental (OXY), and Suncor (SU).

The rest of additions T. Boone made are really minor. For instance, he added to a myriad of positions, increasing practically every other remaining position by around 2.8%. Don't try to make sense of this, because he did the exact same thing last quarter as I showed in the previous 13F update I wrote about BP here. Basically, it looks as if Boone has some spare cash laying around and he's slowly but surely easing into positions by adding to them by 2.8% each quarter. So, I think it makes sense to put more emphasis on the positions he has massively added to like the ones I highlighted in the paragraph above. But, at the same time, I think it's worth mentioning the various other names he seems to be slowly building a core position in over time.

That's really it concerning BP Capital's portfolio. Remember that this is an energy centric hedge fund and they undoubtedly have positions in the actual commodities markets themselves. And, we can't see these positions. Since the 13F filings we track are done through the SEC, they only track equities traded on the stock exchanges. The funds are not required to report holdings in the currency, commodity, or futures markets. So, keep in mind this is only the equity portion of BP's portfolio.