Our friends at Board Studios have put together a web design package exclusively for Market Folly readers that we wanted to share because they do great work and we thought it would be of interest to many of you. Reach out to their founder to receive the discount at kosta@boardstudios.com or 347-871-4453.
In a world of me-too investment advisors and funds, how do you differentiate yourself? When you're out fundraising, how do you stand out? Making a good first impression is critical when you're looking for potential clients to trust you with their capital.
When potential investors are researching your firm online, what do you want them to see? You need a professional, well-designed website that backs up your expertise, philosophy, and performance.
Board Studios is your ideal partner because the founder is an investor with 10+ years of experience on Wall St, including investment banking, private equity, and hedge funds. So you won't waste any time explaining the message you're trying to convey.
Here's just an example of their most recent work.
First 10 Responders Receive Discount
Their professionally designed, fully custom 5-page websites typically cost $10,000. But we've secured a special offer for our readers for only $6,000.
This includes building an entire website from scratch, getting it uploaded, and resolving any issues with your service providers to ensure everything works flawlessly.
Board Studios will listen to your vision, guide you through their streamlined process, and answer all your questions to ensure your firm's online presence makes a great first impression.
They've been extremely generous to offer this discount so if you're looking for a new website or refresh, reach out to Board Studios' founder at: kosta@boardstudios.com or give him a call at 347-871-4453
Friday, July 21, 2017
Professional Web Design Package For Investment Firms: First 10 Responders Receive Discount
Thursday, July 20, 2017
JANA Partners Exits Whole Foods Market Stake
Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund firm JANA Partners has filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding shares of Whole Foods Market (WFM). Per the filing, JANA Partners has sold its entire position as of July 17th.
As an activist investor, JANA Pushed Whole Foods to sell itself and the company recently agreed to a deal with Amazon (AMZN). Instead of sitting around in a merger arbitrage trade, it looks like JANA has decided to move on to its next opportunity.
For more on this firm, we've highlighted a stock JANA Partners recently bought here.
Per Google Finance, Whole Foods is "is engaged in the business of natural and organic foods supermarket. The Company operates approximately 456 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Its stores have an average size of approximately 39,000 square feet, and are supported by its distribution centers, bake house facilities, commissary kitchens, seafood-processing facilities, a produce procurement center, and a specialty coffee and tea procurement and roasting operation, among others. It offers over 30,000 organic stock keeping units (SKUs), covering various areas of its store, including produce, packaged goods, bulk, frozen, dairy, meat, bakery, prepared foods, coffee, tea, beer, wine, cheese, nutritional supplements, vitamins, body care, pet foods and household goods. The Company's brands include 365 Everyday Value, Allegro Coffee, Whole Foods Market, Whole Paws, and Engine 2 Plant-Strong. It also offers approximately 400 temporary exclusives."
Corvex Management Adds To Energen Position
Keith Meister's activist firm Corvex Management has filed an amended 13D regarding shares of Energen (EGN). Per the filing, Corvex now owns 8.8% of the company with over 8.51 million shares.
This is an increase of over 1.1 million shares since late June when Corvex was previously buying EGN. The filing notes they were buying in early July and as recent as July 19th. They bought between $47.11 and $50.57.
Corvex's stake is actually comprised of 8.1 million shares of common stock and various stock options. They have 415,200 shares underlying call options that have an exercise price of $50 and expiration of October 20, 2017. They've also sold the same amount of call options with an exercise price of $60 and the same expiration in October. Also, they've sold the same amount of put options with an exercise price of $40 and expiration of January 19, 2018.
For more on this fund, we've highlighted how Corvex has bought another stock recently.
Per Google Finance, Energen is "an oil and natural gas exploration and production company. The Company is engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas properties and natural gas. Its operations are conducted through subsidiary, Energen Resources Corporation and occur within the Midland Basin, the Delaware Basin and the Central Basin Platform areas of the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico. The Company is focused on increasing its oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas production and proved reserves through active development and/or exploratory programs in the Permian Basin. As of December 31, 2016, oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas represented approximately 60%, 20% and 20% of its reserves. As of December 31, 2016, its development activities added approximately 327 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) of reserves from the drilling of 623 gross development, exploratory and service wells and 73 well recompletions and pay-adds."
ValueAct Capital Cuts Bioverativ Stake
Jeff Ubben's activist investment firm ValueAct Capital has filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding its position in Bioverativ (BIVV). Per the filing, ValueAct now owns 3.8% of the company with just over 4 million shares.
This is a decrease from the previous 8.4 million shares that they previously owned at the end of the first quarter of 2017. The latest filing shows ValueAct sold over 4.68 million shares from June 19th through July 13th at prices ranging from $59.70 to $62.56.
We've also highlighted another stock ValueAct has been selling here.
Per Google Finance, Bioverativ is "a biotechnology company. The Company is focused on the discovery, research, development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of hemophilia and other blood disorders. It markets approximately two products, including ELOCTATE [Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein], and ALPROLIX [Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein], extended half-life clotting-factor therapies for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B, respectively. ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX use a process known as Fc fusion to link recombinant factor VIII and factor IX, respectively, to a protein fragment in the body known as Fc. The fusion of the factor with the Fc protein fragment uses a naturally occurring pathway and is designed to extend the half-life of the factor thereby making the product last longer in a person's blood than various factor therapies. Its pipeline includes BIVV 001(rFVIIIFc-VWF-XTEN) and BIVV 002 (rFIXFc-XTEN)."
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
What We're Reading ~ 7/19/17
How do you value a subscription business? [25iq]
The logic of patience [Value Investor India]
A look at BOFI Federal Savings: Annals of the Bank of Misery [SIRF]
On the struggles of shopping malls part 1 and part 2 [Adventures in Capitalism]
America's venerable food brands are struggling [WSJ]
Inside Formula One's (FWONK) race for world domination [FT]
A look at Liberty Braves Group (BATRA) [Yet Another Value Blog]
A new record high for US consumer debt [WSJ]
This telecom bet big on landlines and lost [WSJ]
Qatar: the global empire of a tiny country [Amrank]
10 years after the last bull began to fail, this market shows fewer signs of trouble [CNBC]
The personality trait that massively improves decision making [Inc]
This guilt-free ice cream is a cult hit, thanks to Instagram [Bloomberg]
Monday, July 17, 2017
Greenlight Capital Q2 Letter: New Toshiba Position
David Einhorn's hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital is out with its second quarter letter. During the quarter, they lost 4% and thus far for the year are down 2.8% net. Their average exposure was 111% long and 79% short.
Their five largest longs in alphabetical order are: AerCap (AER), Bayer (Germany: BAYN), CONSOL Energy (CNX), General Motors (GM), and Mylan (MYL).
They also point out short positions in their 'bubble basket' include Amazon (AMZN), athenahealth (ATHN), Netflix (NFLX), and Tesla (TSLA) that have moved against them.
The letter walks through some of their thoughts on each. While Greenlight is long one auto manufacturer (GM) and short another one via Tesla, they don't do pair trades.
Also, the letter highlights that Greenlight started a new long in Toshiba (Japan: 6502) and outlines their thesis there.
Lastly, they also note they've sold their longs in Altice and Time Warner (TWX), as well as covered their decade-long short position in the credit rating agencies and their short of Mallinckrodt (MNK).
Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q2 letter:
For more from this manager, be sure to check out Einhorn's presentation on shorting Core Labs.
Whitney Tilson's Presentation on Alphabet and Facebook
Whitney Tilson of Kase Capital Management gave a presentation at the 14th annual Value Investing Seminar in Italy on two stocks: Alphabet (GOOG) and Facebook (FB).
Tilson starts by doing a bit of a post-mortem on a call he made against Google some time ago. He points out that the company enjoys a flywheel of network effects and economies of scale: large user base > large advertiser base > better monetization > most R&D dollars > best product > high barriers to entry.
That's obviously not anything new, but he points out that valuation isn't crazy at 28x 2017 EPS and 13x EBITDA estimates given that the vast majority of incremental ad spending is ending up on GOOG or Facebook's platforms. And if you back out GOOG's cash ($126 per share) and 'other bets' ($50 per share), you get a valuation much more in line with the S&P for a company that he says is "vastly superior" to the average corporation.
On Facebook (FB), Tilson points out the company has higher margins than GOOG, and revenue growth is higher as well.
Embedded below is Tilson's presentation on GOOG and FB:
You can download a .pdf copy here.
Peter Lynch on How to Pick Stocks
Legendary investor Peter Lynch once gave a talk on how to pick stocks from "The Stock Shop" and goes over basic concepts like time horizon, your advantages for stock picking, types of companies, hidden assets, risk factors, etc.
He previously managed the Magellan Fund and between 1977 and 1990 returned an average of 29% annually. He's also the author of the famous investing book One Up On Wall Street.
Embedded below is the video of Peter Lynch on how to pick stocks:
For more from this investor, we've also previously posted about Peter Lynch on using your edge: timeless advice for investors.
