Paul Singer Buys More Than Sells in Third Quarter

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Nov 19, 2014
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Paul Singer (Trades, Portfolio), founder and CEO of Elliot Management hedge fund, which manages more than $24 billion in assets, is known for taking an activist investor stance in underperforming companies. That approach has paid off with an average 14% annual return for clients of Elliot Management.

More than one-third of Elliot Management’s holdings are in the oil and gas industry, primarily Hess Corp (HES, Financial) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC, Financial). In the third quarter, Singer added to his holdings in both.

In all, Singer added to his existing holdings in six companies in the third quarter.

New buys: Interpublic Group of Companies and Family Dollar Stores

The biggest purchase Singer made was 31,135,000 shares of EMC Corp (EMC, Financial), a Massachusetts-based provider of data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, Cloud computing and other products and services to businesses. He paid an average price of $28.85 per share. The transaction had a 10.32% impact on his portfolio.

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He also added to his recently acquired holdings in Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc (IPG, Financial). His third-quarter purchase tallied 16,512,326 shares. The transaction had a 3.44% impact on his portfolio.

Singer also added to his stakes in Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOX, Financial), Hess Corp and Oi SA (OIBR, Financial).

Singer acquired shares in 12 companies that were new to his portfolio in the third quarter.

In July, he invested in Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc, a New York-based global advertising holding company, at an average price of $19.39. The transaction had a 4.1% impact on his portfolio.

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Singer also bought 3,298,830 shares in Family Dollar Stores Inc (FDO, Financial), a variety store chain based in North Carolina, for an average price of $73.64 per share. The purchase had a 2.9% impact on his portfolio.

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Singer acquired 1,160,293 shares of Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC, Financial), a New York-based cable telecommunications company, for an average price of $148.67. The deal had a 1.9% impact on his portfolio.

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He also purchased 1,255,000 shares in VMWare Inc (VMW, Financial), a California-based computer software company, for an average price of $97.34. The acquisition had a 1.3% impact on his portfolio.

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Singer also added holdings in Covidien PLC (COV, Financial), Shire PLC (SHPG, Financial), CNH Industrial NV (CNHI, Financial), FCB Financial Holdings Inc (FCB), Energy XXI Ltd (EXXI), Energy Company of Parana (ELP), Apache Corporation (APA) and Solazyme Inc (SZYM).

Divestitures and reductions

Singer sold all of his holdings in two companies in the third quarter – Mallinckrodt PLC (MNK) and Allergan Inc (AGN).

He sold 916,000 shares of Mallinckrodt, a pharmaceuticals company in Ireland, for an average price of $78.18. The transaction had a -1% impact on his portfolio.

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Singer also sold 281,700 shares of Allergan, a pharmaceutical company based in California, for an average price of $166.09 per share. The sale had a -0.67% impact on his portfolio.

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Singer sold a portion of his holdings in five companies – Cameron International Corp (CAM), Iron Mountain Inc (IRM), Juniper Networks Inc (JNPR), Compuware Corp (CPWR) and Riverbed Technology Inc (RVBD).

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