Most investors in hedge funds are apparently happy with the way things are going. According to a new Credit Suisse hedge fund investor sentiment survey, 93 percent of more than 200 global institutional investors said they plan to maintain or increase their hedge fund allocations during the second half of this year. The investor group, which represents nearly $700 billion in hedge fund investments, favors global macro among the various strategies. However, among investors in the Americas, the strategy ranks third, behind equity long-short and event driven. Credit Suisse also notes a distinct rise in interest in multistrategy funds, moving up from fourteenth place to sixth place in the current, mid-year survey. On the other hand, Credit Suisse notes that CTA/Managed Futures saw a sharp decrease in popularity, dropping from third place in its annual survey to ninth place in the mid-year survey.
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Another day, another private investment disclosed by Tiger Global Management. This time the New York firm, founded by Tiger Cub Charles (Chase) Coleman III, participated in the $50 million financing of Little, an India-based app that helps people find deals on a variety of consumer services such as restaurants, movies, hotels, gyms, among others, according to Crunchbase.com.
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Meanwhile, Coatue Management, run by Coleman’s fellow Tiger Cub Philippe Laffont and which also likes to make private investments, participated in the $71.5 million financing of Avvo, an online legal marketplace that connects individuals with lawyers, according to a press release issued by Avvo. This is at least the second investment made by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm in Avvo.
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Stifel Nicolaus raised its rating on Amazon.com to Buy from Hold and established a $700 price target, asserting that the e-commerce juggernaut has emerged from its “extensive and extended investment cycle” as a “bigger, stronger, faster company than we anticipated.” The bank concedes in a note to clients that it “missed the turn in the cycle this time” but assured clients “the runway is long from here.”
It is not known right now who owned the stock at the end of the second quarter. We earlier reported that as of May 5, Jason Karp’s Tourbillon Capital Partners counted Amazon.com among its largest long positions. At the end of the first quarter, it was the fourth largest position of East Setauket, New York-based Renaissance Technologies, the eleventh largest position of New York-based D.E. Shaw & Co. and the thirteenth largest position of Chicago-based Citadel.
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It is hard to know these days whether Eminence Capital’s Ricky Sandler is yelling “Help!” or “Yelp!”. This is because shares of the online listings and review firm plummeted about 28 percent Wednesday following the release of disappointing earnings and guidance and the resignation of its chairman. In late May, New York-based Eminence disclosed it had established a new stake of more than 3.3 million shares of Yelp, or 5.1 percent of the firm.
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Bad news for Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, at least for now: Shares of Herbalife surged more than 4 percent Wednesday and are now up more than 8 percent over the past two days.
