D.E Shaw & Co. , one of the world’s largest hedge funds with a total portfolio valued at over $39 billion, added Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and the hedge fund favorite, News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS), among others, to its portfolio during the June quarter.
In the month of July, D E Shaw’s flagship Oculus fund was up 0.4 percent while the year-to-date returns were 9.7 percent. The total value of Oculus fund is more than $9 billion, with the major chunk of the capital invested in international assets. About half of Oculus fund’s capital is allocated in Discretionary macro strategies. While significant portions are invested in equity arbitrage, energy, futures, asset backed securities and insurance strategies. Throughout the year the fund has only seen one low month and that was in April 2012 when it was down 0.5 percent while in May there was no change. The highest increase in returns was in Jan 2012, with 3.7 percent.
The D.E Shaw Composite fund has over $7 billion in capital. The July 2o12 returns were down 0.2 percent while the annual returns were up 3.8 percent. The fund invests in various avenues in addition to the exposures of Oculus fund, like, long/short equities, corporate credits, direct assets and some hedges. The Composite fund has only shown moderate performance over the past seven months. The highest gain was seen in Jan and May 2012 with 1.4 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
The relatively newer, D.E Shaw Heliant fund was launched in May 2010, it now has approximately $1.6 billion under management. Most of the capital is invested in the D.E Shaw Heliant International Fund, L.P. The fund was down 1.8 percent in the last month and the saw a 10 percent increase year-to-date. Like D.E Shaw’s other fund counterparts, Heliant was also down in April and May of this year. The broadest increase was seen in Jan 2012, with a 6.6 percent rise in returns.
Overall, D.E Shaw’s top five holdings are Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) making up 2.68 percent of the portfolio, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) with 1.06 percent, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) 0.94 percent, Mylan Inc (NASDAQ:MYL) 0.91 percent and Warner Chilcott plc (NASDAQ:WCRX) taking up 0.79 percent of the portfolio. On a sector basis, the fund is mostly invested in Technology while Service, Financials and Basic Materials are also among favorite investment areas.
