Loeb Exits Stake In Alibaba; Druckenmiller Buys Energy Stocks

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Daniel Loeb exited its stake in Alibaba Group Holding in the first quarter based on its 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Loeb is the hedge fund manager of Third Point LLC, an activist hedge fund with around $17.5 billion of assets under management (AUM).

The filing showed the Loeb sold 10 million shares of Alibaba in the first quarter. The stake had a market value of $1 billion by the end of 2014.

Alibaba stock performance

The stock price of Alibaba declined 20% in the first quarter of 2015. Alibaba shares were negatively impacted by its December quarter financial performance released on January 29. Alibaba posted $4.22 billion in revenue, which was lower than the $4.45 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.

This month, the stock price of Alibaba increased after the Chinese e-commerce giant reported its March quarter financial results that the beat consensus estimate. Alibaba posted $2.81 billion in revenue, higher than the $2.78 billion expected by analysts. Alibaba also appointed Daniel Zhang as CEO.

The shares of Alibaba are trading $88.55 per share at the time of this writing around 1:32 in the afternoon in New York. The stock traded between $77.70 and $120 per share over the past 52 weeks. Alibaba’s stock value is still down nearly 15% year-to-date.

Aside from Alibaba, Loeb also sold all of his stock holdings in Citigroup (5 million shares), EMC (7 million shares), Hertz Global Holdings (4.25 million shares), Williams Companies (4 million shares) among others.

Loeb acquires new position in McKesson, Yum Brands

During the first quarter, Loeb acquired a new position in McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical distributor. It was reported last month that McKesson is a potential bidder for Omnicare, a supplier of drugs to nursing homes.

Loeb bought 625,000 shares of McKesson worth $141.51 million. Earlier this week McKesson reported that its revenue increased 19% to $44.9 billion for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015. The company’s GAAP earnings were $1.69 per share.

Earlier this month, Loeb revealed that he acquired a large stake in Yum! According to him, the company the company is in the early stages of turning around from its recent problems in China.

Based on the filing, Loeb purchased 3 million YUM shares worth around $259.77 million and 15,000 YUM shares (CALL) worth approximately $1.18 million.

Druckenmiller energy stockholdings

Meanwhile, Stan Druckenmiller, the chairman and CEO of Duquesne Family Office purchased equities of energy companies including Cheniere Energy, EOG Resources and Pioneer Natural Resources in the first quarter.

Druckenmiller bought 258,700 shares of Cheniere Energy worth around $20.023 million, 561,600 shares of EOG Resources worth around $51.49 million, and 224,500 shares of Pioneer Natural Resources worth approximately $36.70 million.

Druckenmiller acquired stakes in energy stocks before David Einhorn, the hedge fund manager of Greenlight Capital slammed shale oil fracking as a “business that burns cash and doesn’t grow anything” during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York.

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