Greenlight Capital continues to sharply underperform the broader market. The hedge fund firm headed by David Einhorn was essentially flat in September, losing only 10 basis points. In comparison, there was a 2 percent gain for the S&P 500 and a 2.68 rise for the Nasdaq Composite.
Greenlight was up a little more than 1 percent in the third quarter. Year-to-date, it has climbed 9 percent, compared with roughly 21 percent for each of the two benchmarks.
While month-to-month moves in the short book aren’t disclosed, Greenlight’s second-quarter letter said it has maintained what it considers to be a neutral net long exposure of about 40 percent. “We have done better on down days for the S&P 500 than on up days,” it explained.
In September, Greenlight’s largest long positions posted mixed results.
The two largest positions fared well. Green Brick Partners, a homebuilding and land development company and Greenlight’s largest U.S.-listed long, accounting for about 30 percent of the portfolio, continued to surge, gaining 6 percent. Coal giant CONSOL Energy, the firm’s second-largest long position, gained 2.3 percent.
Other big positions also performed well in September.
Belgian chemicals company Solvay surged 11 percent. It was singled out by Greenlight in the second-quarter letter as one of its five largest disclosed long positions. In addition, the firm’s macro bet on gold jumped more than 6 percent last month.
Other top holdings, however, lost money in September. For example, No. 3 U.S.-listed long Brighthouse Financial, an annuities marketer, was down nearly 2 percent. IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl Holdings dropped about 3 percent. And ODP Corp., the former Office Depot, declined by 3.6 percent.
Meanwhile, a big new position in Hewlett Packard was down nearly 1 percent last month. Greenlight more than doubled its stake in HP in the second quarter.