Freeport McMoRan, the energy and natural resources company that is attracting a small hedge fund following, surged more than 4 percent to close at $10.98. The stock is now up nearly 50 percent this year alone, making it one of the best-performing stocks in 2016. This is about four times better than Facebook has fared so far. At the end of the first quarter, former hedge fund manager Carl Icahn remained the largest shareholder, with about 8.3 percent of the shares. Tiger Cub Discovery Capital Management, based in South Norwalk, Connecticut, is also among the larger holders of the stock. In the first quarter macro giant Caxton Associates established a new 2.4 million share stake, making it the New York firm’s ninth-largest U.S. stock holding. Computer-driven giant Two Sigma bought more than 2.5 million shares last quarter. However, the stock is still a very small part of the New York firm’s stock portfolio. On Wednesday Jefferies & Co. reportedly raised its price target to $15. Investors apparently are excited the company has been selling assets and raising cash.
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Easy come, easy go. After a nice three-day rally, shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell for a second straight day, this time dropping nearly 6 percent to close at $26.26.
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Another setback for William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management. At roughly the half-way point this month, the New York activist manager is down 4.3 percent through May 17. The hedge fund manager is now down 21.6 percent for the year.
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BH Macro Limited, which invests most of its assets in Brevan Howard Asset Management’s Brevan Howard Master Fund, is up slightly for the month so far, trimming its loss for the year to about 1 percent. Paul Tudor Jones II’s Tudor BVI Global Fund, managed by Tudor Investment Corp., is off about 2.9 percent for the year after about one week into May. Andrew Law’s Caxton Global Investment, managed by Caxton Associates, is down 0.25 percent or so for the year through May 9, while Louis Bacon’s New York-based Moore Global Investments, managed by Moore Capital Management, is flat for the year through the end of April.
