By Sam Forgione and Aaron Pressman
NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) – Barry Rosentein’s JANA Partners
liked grocery chain Supervalu Inc in a big way in the
first quarter, while Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management lost
its stomach for the company’s shares.
Regulatory filings on Tuesday revealed that JANA, a hedge
fund with $5.5 billion in assets, picked up some 14 million
shares of Supervalu in the quarter ended March 31. For Laffont’s
$9.5 billion firm, however, it was a different story, as the
hedge fund dumped all of its roughly 10 million shares.
In the $2.2 trillion hedge fund industry it is not uncommon
for managers to move in and out of stocks. On Tuesday, hedge
fund managers and other large investment firms filed so-called
13-F reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
shedding some light on how they traded in U.S. stocks in the
first quarter.
But the regulatory filings only tell a small portion of the
story because they offer no explanation for a fund’s buying and
selling of U.S. stocks. The filings also don’t require money
managers to disclose short positions, or bets a stock will
decline in price.
So there is no way of knowing what motivated Coatue to exit
shares of Supervalu, which doubled in price in the first
quarter, after the grocery chain struck a deal in January to
sell some of is supermarket chains to Cerberus Capital
Management for $3.3 billion. Similarly, it is not clear what
prompted JANA to jump into the stock, or even when it
accumulated most of those shares.
The 13-F filings then are an imperfect look into the stock
trading strategy of large funds. It is also important to note
that in the 45 days since the first quarter ended, some of the
reported stock positions may have changed.
For more on how big money managers traded in the first
quarter, here is a breakdown by sectors and actively traded
stocks:
APPLE
Coatue Management added 562,546 shares of Apple,
bringing its total stake in the iPhone and iPad manufacturer to
1.2 million shares.
Appaloosa Management, a $14 billion hedge fund led by David
Tepper, reduced its stake in Apple by 40 percent to 540,000
shares.
OTHER TECH
Farallon Capital Management, a $20 billion hedge funded led
by Andrew Spokes, took a new 2.46 million-share stake in
computer manufacturer Dell Inc, which is embroiled in a
contentious corporate buyout.
INTERNET
JANA opened a new 25.5 million-share stake in online gaming
firm Zynga. Shares of Zynga jumped 7 percent on the
disclosure by the fund, which has a reputation for shareholder
activism.
JANA also opened a 21.9 million-share position in online
coupon company Groupon.
Passport Capital, a $3.7 billion fund led by John Burbank,
opened up a 2.2 million-share position in Yahoo!.
FINANCIALS
Appaloosa reduced its holdings in several financial stocks.
The hedge fund, for instance, cut its stake in American
International Group by 29 percent to 4.3 million shares.
Farallon raised its stake in American Express Co. by
2.1 million shares.
