The family office of Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google, has bought a 20 percent stake in D.E. Shaw, according to The New York Times. Hillspire, the name of the family office, paid an undisclosed sum for the stake, which was formerly owned by Lehman Brothers. The bankrupt investment bank had shelled out $800 million—plus other considerations—in 2007 for its investment in the New York multistrategy and quantitatively-driven firm, which currently manages $36 billion. “I’ve always regard Eric as a kindred spirit, someone who shares our belief in the power of groundbreaking innovation, analytical rigor, and extraordinarily gifted employees,” D.E. Shaw founder David E. Shaw said in a statement, which also noted that Schmidt has been a longtime investor in D.E. Shaw.
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Investors are not sure what to do with the news that Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital disclosed Wednesday that it owns 5.34 percent of Vitamin Shoppe. In a 13D filing, the Dallas hedge fund firm says it originally bought the stock as an undervalued play but subsequently has been in touch with management. In the filing, Carlson does not make any specific proposals, demands or pronouncements. Shares of the specialty retailer surged 5.3 percent on Wednesday but then fell more than 3 percent on Thursday.
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American hedge fund managers are not the only ones getting financially involved in political races. Chris Rokos, one of the co-founders of London-based Brevan Howard Asset Management, has donated more than $255,000 to the party of Prime Minister David Cameron, making him the largest individual donor to Britain’s Conservative Party, according to Bloomberg. The country’s general election is scheduled for next month. According to the report, Cameron’s challenger, Labour’s Ed Miliband, has called for getting rid of tax breaks used by hedge funds and other alternative investors like private equity funds. He also wants to tax bankers’ bonuses. Rokos retired from Brevan Howard in 2012 and is reportedly planning to launch his own hedge fund firm.
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Denjoy Capital Partners is the latest hedge fund to shut down. The London-based firm, which was backed by Blackstone Group is shutting The Denjoy Integral Fund, its European long-short equity hedge fund, according to Reuters. The fund was launched by Frederic Denjoy, a former partner at Brevan Howard Asset Management, with seed money from Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, according to the report.
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Deutsche Bank raised its price target on hedge fund favorite Facebook, from $90 to $100. “Facebook reported modest upside to consensus estimates and continues to execute with consistency across almost every metric: users, engagement and monetization,” the bank told clients in a note. It added that over the past 12 months, Facebook has lifted its 2016 earnings per share estimate by 22 percent despite heavy foreign exchange pressure. During that period, the stock’s multiple has fallen by 5 percent. The stock, however, fell 2.62 percent on Thursday.
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Deutsche Bank also raised its price target on activist favorite Bank of New York Mellon, from $40 to $44. The move follows a strong earnings report and better-than 3 percent stock price increase on Wednesday. ”It was a good quarter on both cost control and revenue growth in several areas, and we see management making good progress in delivering positive operating leverage it what remains a still relatively challenging revenue growth backdrop,” the bank said. Even so, it retained its Hold rating on the stock.
