Hedge Fund Links ~ 3/24/17

Eton Park hedge fund to shut down [NYTimes]

The 34-year old hedge fund manager who bet everything on a stock that tanked [Forbes]

Top 25 highest earning hedge fund managers [Forbes]

What it's like to be a woman in the hedge fund business [Business Insider]

How a $26 billion hedge fund lures the beautiful minds [Bloomberg]

Simon Lack on hedge funds [Ritholtz]

Hedge funds' top secret social network is... Yahoo? [fnLondon]

Preet Bharara: a prosecutor who knew how to drain a swamp [NYTimes]

Viking Global Adds To Gulfport Energy Stake

Andreas Halvorsen's hedge fund firm Viking Global has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding its position in Gulfport Energy (GPOR).  Per the filing, Viking now owns 5.8% of the company with over 9.13 million shares.

They've boosted their position size by over 2.83 million shares since the end of 2016 when they owned 6.29 million shares.  The filing was made due to activity on March 10th.

We've highlighted other recent portfolio activity from Viking Global here.

Per Google Finance, Gulfport Energy is "an oil and natural gas exploration and production company. The Company focuses on the exploitation and acquisition of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil in the United States. The Company's properties are located in the Utica Shale in Eastern Ohio and along the Louisiana Gulf Coast in the West Cote Blanche Bay (WCBB) and Hackberry fields. The Company also has an interest in producing properties in Northwestern Colorado in the Niobrara Formation and in Western North Dakota in the Bakken Formation. The Company also holds an acreage position in the Alberta oil sands in Canada through its interest in Grizzly Oil Sands ULC and an interest in an entity that operates in the Phu Horm gas field in Thailand. The Company also owns interests in various fields, which includes Deer Island, Fay South, Crest, Squaw Cheek, Green River Basin and Watonga Chickasha Trend."

Eminence Capital Trims Autodesk Position

Ricky Sandler's hedge fund firm Eminence Capital has filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding its stake in Autodesk (ADSK).  Per the filing, Eminence now owns 3.6% of Autodesk with 8.01 million shares.

Per the filing, Eminence sold 3.47 million shares on March 16th at $88.08.

It notes they sold "solely for portfolio management reasons.  Due to the significant price appreciation of the Shares since their original investment the Reporting Persons’ position in the Shares had significantly increased as a percentage of total assets under management. The Reporting Persons’ position in the Shares remains the largest position owned by the Reporting Persons. The Reporting Persons are pleased with the progress that has been made in both the Issuer’s business model transition and operating fundamentals and remain confident in the Issuer’s ability to continue to create value for shareholders."

We've highlighted other recent portfolio activity from Eminence Capital here.

Per Google Finance, Autodesk is "a design software and services company, offering customers productive business solutions through technology products and services. The Company serves customers in the architecture, engineering and construction; manufacturing, and digital media, consumer and entertainment industries. It operates in four segments: Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), Platform Solutions and Emerging Business (PSEB), Manufacturing (MFG), and Media and Entertainment (M&E). The PSEB, AEC and MFG segments offer a range of services, including consulting, support and training. The M&E segment offers software products to professionals, post-production facilities and broadcasters for a range of applications. Its software products enable its customers to experience their ideas before they are real by allowing them to imagine, design and create their ideas and to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance in the design process by creating digital prototypes."

What We're Reading ~ 3/23/17

Mauboussin: The incredible shrinking universe of stocks [Credit Suisse]

7 traits for active investors to win in the long term [Jim O'Shaughnessy]

How to fight a price war [Harvard Business Review]

Stephen Jarislowsky's secret: buy stocks you never plan to sell [Canadian Business]

The fourth industrial revolution: a primer on artificial intelligence [Medium]

A pitch on Alphabet (GOOGL / GOOG) [Wexboy]

The autonomous vehicle revolution [Rational Walk]

Mohnish Pabrai thinks autonomous vehicles will take 20 years [Benzinga]

Baidu's (BIDU) CEO envisions a spinoff of robot cars arm [Bloomberg]

On Intel's (INTC) purchase of Mobileye (MBLY) [Stratechery]
Apple (AAPL) wants to bring augmented reality to the masses [Bloomberg]

Tech and entertainment in the era of mass customization [Andreessen Horowitz]

How being wrong can help us get it right [Tim Harford]

Advertisers are more interested in Instagram than Snapchat [Fortune]

Interview with Ctrip.com's (CTRP) CEO [Skift]

The billion dollar industry of professional video gaming [Bloomberg]

Soda loses its US crown; Americans now drink more bottled water [WSJ]

Pat Dorsey Interview With Young Investors Society

Pat Dorsey was recently interviewed by Young Investors Society.  He's the founder of Dorsey Asset Management and prior to that worked as the Director of Equity Research for Morningstar. 

He's also the author of two books:  The Little Book That Builds Wealth and then The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing.  Here's some takeaways from his talk:


- His book talks about moats and competitive advantage.  He wished he put more in his book about the business that is building the moat, versus one that already has one.  A younger biz with a longer runaway and each dollar of incremental cashflow is being invested at an increment ROIC.

- If you've got long-term time horizon, smaller pool of capital, and investors ok with volatility, your returns are probably gonna be superior. 

- For companies, the ability to reinvest is where you really maximize things

- On short selling:  Highlighted the not-so-great risk/reward of only being able to make 100% on your position but the potential to lose an infinite amount (if the short just keeps going up and up).  "Shorting is tough because time is not on your side."

- Short selling is very hard and the few good short sellers he's met never ever ever short because of valuation.  They short because a business is fraudulent or fundamentally flawed.  For shorting candidates, look for businesses that both raises equity and pays a dividend.

- On Snapchat (SNAP): Thinks it could be a smoking hole in the ground after a while.  Mentioned to look at the company's growth rate once Facebook (FB) rolled out its 'stories' copycat feature on its Instagram platform.  Said SNAP needs to find a monetization model over time.

- Said investing in DryShips (DRYS) is kind of like playing poker with Kim Jung Il.

- Make sure it's a business you can understand, don't ignore management.

- On Facebook (FB), which Dorsey owns: seems almost too obvious; has huge topline but still growing at over 50%.  Global advertising market is huge (opportunity).  Advertising grows a little bit more than global GDP but digital ads have grown even faster.  Advertisers follow attention.  2 companies get 80% of incremental ad spend: FB and Alphabet (GOOGL).  But if you had to take the stock and lock it up and not touch it for 10 years, you probably can't do that with FB because the landscape changes too much.  FB is hyper-aware of the risk of declining user engagement.  The current valuation does not assume dominance 10 years from now.  Close to 17-18x EBIT now, growing over 50%.

- "We worry about all our positions.  If you ever have a position you're not worried about, you're probably in trouble."

- Single biggest lesson is to avoid endowment bias.  Just because he owns it doesn't mean he should trust management more.  "My biggest mistakes have definitely come when I've not kept the bar as high as it should be with management quality or business quality."

- You can never have too high of a hurdle rate for businesses you evaluate.  You don't need to own 100 stocks, you're not running a Fidelity mutual fund.  Maybe 10 in your personal account, or 30 if you're running a fund

- Sticky note on his computer: "No FOMO"  or No Fear Of Missing Out.

- Ask yourself: Does it fit your personality?  Does it fit what you're trying to do as an investor?

The publisher disabled the ability to embed the video but you can view it here at the Young Investors Society YouTube channel.

We also recently posted up Mark Cuban's interview with Young Investors Society as well.

Tiger Global Starts Apollo Global Management Stake

Chase Coleman's hedge fund firm Tiger Global has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Apollo Global Management (APO).  Per the filing, Tiger Global now owns 7% of APO with over 13 million shares.

This is a newly disclosed equity position for the firm and the filing was made due to activity on March 8th.

We've highlighted other recent portfolio activity from Tiger Global here.

Per Google Finance, Apollo Global Management is "an alternative investment manager in private equity, credit and real estate. The Company raises, invests and manages funds on behalf of pension, endowment and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. The Company's segments include private equity, credit and real estate. The private equity segment invests in control equity and related debt instruments, convertible securities and distressed debt investments. The credit segment invests in non-control corporate and structured debt instruments, including performing, stressed and distressed investments across the capital structure. The real estate segment invests in real estate equity for the acquisition and recapitalization of real estate assets, portfolios, platforms and operating companies, and real estate debt, including first mortgage and mezzanine loans, preferred equity and commercial mortgage backed securities."

Fairholme Capital Buys More Sears Holdings

Bruce Berkowitz's investment firm Fairholme Capital has filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding its position in Sears Holdings (SHLD).  Per the filing, Fairholme acquired 222,100 SHLD shares in total across March 15th, 16th, and 17th at prices of $8.75, $8.76, and $8.86.

After these purchases, Fairholme now owns over 27.98 million shares.

This is the second time Fairholme has acquired SHLD shares this month as we previously highlighted Berkowitz's SHLD activity.

Per Google Finance, Sears Holdings is "an integrated retailer. The Company is the parent company of Kmart Holding Corporation (Kmart) and Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears). It operates through two segments: Kmart and Sears Domestic. It operates approximately 940 Kmart stores across over 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. Kmart stores carry an array of products across various merchandise categories, including seasonal merchandise, toys, lawn and garden equipment, food and consumables and apparel, including products sold under labels, such as Jaclyn Smith, Joe Boxer and Alphaline and certain Sears brand products (such as Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard) and services. Its Sears Domestic segment's operations consist of full-line stores, specialty stores, commercial sales and home services. Full-line stores offer an array of products and service offerings across various merchandise categories, including appliances, consumer electronics/connected solutions and tools."