Billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman chose the last day of July to announce his biggest investment ever, a $2.2 billion bet his Pershing Square hedge fund made to take a 9.8% stake in . Then things fell apart. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff
Anyone who thought William Ackman might have been cowed by Herbalife’s big second-quarter earnings beat Monday hasn’t been paying attention to the billionaire’s short-selling crusade against the company. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Seven months ago, billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman stood on a New York City stage at an unorthodox event that he had organized and declared that Herbalife’s stock was going to collapse because the controversial nutritional supplements seller was a pyramid scheme. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Last week, billionaire investor Carl Icahn sat on a stage at New York’s Pierre Hotel and was feeling so good about his bet on Herbalife that he almost sounded magnanimous towards his biggest Wall Street rival, the billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman. “I like Ackman,” Icahn said. “Anybody that makes me a quarter million dollars I like.” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Roland Head, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
LONDON — Stock index futures at 7 a.m. EDT indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average may open up by 0.29% this morning, while the S&P 500 may open 0.26% higher. The Dow closed at a new record high of 14,673.46 yesterday, but the CNN Fear & Greed Index remained almost unmoved at 53, or “neutral.”
European markets moved strongly higher this morning after Chinese import and export figures beat analysts’ forecasts. Imports rose by 14.1% in March, while exports rose by 10%, boosting trade hopes for European companies. At 7:20 a.m. EDT, the German DAX was up 1.16%, and the French CAC 40 was 1.18% higher. In London, the FTSE 100 was up 0.76%, helped by a strong showing from mining firms and financial stocks, which collectively make up the majority of the index’s capitalization.
In the U.S. today, investors are likely to focus closely on the minutes of March’s Federal Open Markets Committee meeting, which may provide some insight into the current thinking of the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee. The minutes are due to be published at 2 p.m. EDT, when details of March’s federal budget are also due to be released.
In other news, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported earlier this morning that its weekly mortgage-applications index increased 4.5% following a 4% decline the previous week. The EIA weekly petroleum status report is due at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
Companies due to report quarterly earnings before markets open this morning include Constellation Brands, CarMax, MSC Industrial Direct, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Earlier this morning, Fastenal reported quarterly earnings of $0.37 per share, an 8.8% increase on the same period in 2012. Fastenal also announced a $0.20 cash dividend for the second quarter of 2013.
Stocks that may be actively traded today include Herbalife, which slid nearly 4% before markets closed yesterday after it revealed that its auditor, KPMG, was to resign. The decision is the result of insider-trading allegations against the KPMG partner responsible for auditing the nutritional-supplements company, which is already the subject of a war of words between activist investors Carl Icahn and William Ackman. Trading in J.C. Penney shares may also be heavy after the retailer’s share price slid a further 12% in trading yesterday. The company’s shares have now fallen almost 60% over the last year.
Finally, let’s not forget that the Dow’s daily movements can add up to serious long-term gains. Indeed, Warren Buffett recently wrote, “The Dow advanced from 66 to 11,497 in the 20th Century, a staggering 17,320% increase that materialized despite four costly wars, a Great Depression and many recessions.” If you, like Buffett, are convinced of the long-term power of the Dow, you should read “5 Stocks To Retire On.” Your long-term wealth could be transformed, even in this uncertain economy. Simply click here now to download this free, no-obligation report.
The article Dow May Open Higher After Chinese Imports Beat Expectations originally appeared on Fool.com.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Reuters
Filed under: Company News, JC Penney
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Katya Wachtel
BOSTON/NEW YORK – Two institutional investors with William Ackman‘s $12 billion hedge fund plan to reach out to the manager to get more information about the firm’s big bet on ailing retailer JC Penney (JCP), whose stock has dropped 21 percent this year.
Officials with two state pension funds that, combined, oversee assets of more than $120 billion told Reuters they want Ackman to give them more information about Pershing Square Capital Management’s portfolio and to say more about the long-range plan for turning around JCPenney’s fashion lines.
The pension officials did not want to be identified because they had not yet set up their meetings with Ackman. The manager, whose fund is sitting on a roughly $500 million paper loss in JCPenney stock, declined to comment.
It’s not uncommon for pension managers and institutional investors to seek a private meeting with hedge fund managers, especially when a big bet or a portfolio is underperforming.
The move by two of Ackman’s investors is an indication that some investors are growing uneasy with Pershing Square‘s stake of 39 million shares in JC Penney, which the hedge fund began amassing in 2010.
“People are reading a lot about Bill Ackman these days and have questions, and while these kind of hedge funds can’t speak to everyone, keeping their very largest clients informed will have benefits,” said Don Steinbrugge, managing partner at investment consulting firm Agecroft Partners LLC, in Richmond, Virginia.
Pershing Square is up 3.6 percent for the year through February, compared with a 2.8 percent gain for the broader $2.6 trillion hedge fund industry.
The pension plan officials said they are also concerned about Ackman’s other very large and public bet -an estimated $1 billion short position in shares of nutritional supplement company Herbalife. Ackman is betting that Herbalife will be exposed as an unsustainable pyramid scheme and the stock will collapse. He currently has a $200 million gain on that bet.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has taken a large stake in Herbalife (HLF) and has engaged in a very public war of words with Ackman over the company.
Meanwhile, at least one prominent hedge fund manager is beginning to line up against Ackman on the short side on JC Penney. Reuters reported last week that York Capital and Morgan Stanley (MS) are shorting the debt of JC Penney, where Ackman sits on the board.
Earlier this week, market speculation that Ackman’s handpicked CEO Ron Johnson might be leaving briefly pushed JC Penney shares up 5 percent on Tuesday.
But not all investors are pushing for Ackman to talk more about JC Penney. Given the fund’s strong track record over the years and current gains, several investors said they are very happy with Ackman and his team.<br …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Filed under: U.S. Government
In a press release this morning, the National Consumers League (NCL) called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “investigate recent allegations that the multi-level marketing company Herbalife [Ltd. (NYSE: HLF)] is, in actuality, a sophisticated pyramid scheme.” The NCL is seeking an examination both of the charges leveled against Herbalife by Pershing Square Capital Management and its chief, William Ackman, and Herbalife’s response to those charges.
In its letter to the FTC, the NCL notes:
Pershing Square‘s research suggests that Herbalife’s business practices may run afoul of many of the “red flags” of pyramid scheme activity in NCL‘s guide.
For its part, Herbalife responded to the NCL‘s letter in a statement to The Wall Street Journal:
We regret that the National Consumers League has permitted itself to be the mechanism by which Pershing Square continues its attack on Herbalife. If anything, it is Pershing Square that should be investigated by appropriate authorities. Its actions are motivated by a reckless $1 billion bet against the company based on knowingly false statements about Herbalife.
So far Carl Icahn has not weighed in, but don’t be surprised if the activist investor raises his stake in Herbalife again.
Ackman, as might have been expected, praised the NCL:
We are pleased that the National Consumers League, the nation’s oldest and one of the most respected consumer protection organizations, has requested that the FTC launch an investigation of Herbalife. We believe that a thorough investigation of Herbalife will reveal it to be a pyramid scheme that has harmed millions of consumers in more than 80 countries around the world.
We’ve said before that Ackman’s goal here has got to be to force the FTC to launch an investigation into Herbalife. If that happens, his short bet against the company will pay off. The outcome of such an investigation would hardly matter.
Shares of Herbalife are down about 2% at $39.60 in a 52-week range of $24.24 to $73.00.
The NCL letter is available here.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Activist Investor, Food, Law, Regulation, Shareholder Issues Tagged: HLF
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By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff
Two of hedge fund manager William Ackman’s biggest trades have been moving against him in 2013, and now one of his fellow investors in J.C. Penney appears to be distancing itself from the retailer. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
During their epic CNBC showdown, hedge fund manager William Ackman almost seemed to be daring Carl Icahn, saying “he can try to scare my investors, which it sounds like he is attempting to do. We take prudent risk at Pershing Square.” …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
