Hedgies Cut Facebook; Berkshire Adds JPM: TOPLive Takeaways

(Bloomberg) -- Here are the KEY TAKEAWAYS from today’s blog on the hedge funds’ disclosure of third-quarter investments in 13F filings. For more, click here for our TOPLive blog.

• A number of investors reduced or cut their holdings in Facebook as the social-media giant’s stock dropped about 15 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30. Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office sold most of its stake, Tiger Global trimmed and Jana Partners exited.
• A bunch of hedge funds boosted stakes in Alibaba, including Lone Pine, Viking Global and Tiger Global.
• Buffett’s bank moves were a highlight. His Berkshire Hathaway became the largest holder of BNY Mellon as of Sept. 30 and reported a new stake in JPMorgan.
• On embattled GE, one of the bigger moves we saw was by Viking. It almost doubled the number of shares it owned in the third quarter as the industrial conglomerate’s shares sunk.
• Looking at energy holdings -- given the recent plummet in oil prices -- PointState Capital, a hedge fund firm run by Druckenmiller’s acolytes, reported a healthy dose of shares in the sector including Marathon Petroleum and Cheniere Energy.
• Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital also added to energy in the quarter. Its biggest new buy was Encana, which has plunged 40 percent since the end of the third quarter.
• David Tepper’s Appaloosa decreased its exposure to U.S. stocks. He pared holdings of 27 companies, and sold out of 14.
• We didn’t see much movement among Tesla’s big shareholders, despite all of the furor around Elon Musk’s comments on going private. T. Rowe Price added some, Fidelity cut a little, but mostly not a whole lot of action.
• Seth Klarman’s Baupost and Appaloosa were among funds that increased their exposure to PG&E in the third quarter, and Viking Global took a new stake, before wildfires roared through California and crushed the utility’s stock price.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Collins in New York at mcollins45@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tal Barak Harif at tbarak@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Melissa Karsh

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