The Tiger Seed that racked up a triple-digit gain in 2020 — in part from a big bet on exercise bicycle company Peloton — sharply increased its bullish stance on stocks heading into May.
Woodson Capital Partners, headed by James Davis, nearly doubled its net long exposure to 31 percent, compared with about 17 percent the prior month, according to its most recent monthly Transparency Report, obtained by Institutional Investor.
This is Woodson’s highest level since November, although it still has just one-third the exposure of the market in general. In April, Woodson both increased its long exposure and trimmed its short exposure.
The firm has consistently maintained a gross exposure of about 195 percent or so for the past five months, according to the report, which provides a brief summary of the month’s and year’s sources of performance.
So far this year, Woodson is down 16 percent, after gaining 2.4 percent in April. It has been led by its short book, which has kicked in 10.5 percent to gross performance. However, this has been offset by a 26.5 percent loss generated by the long book, according to the report. Woodson lost 34.4 percent last year after surging more than 118 percent in 2020, which means that the firm needs to generate another triple-digit gain to get back to its high-water mark.
Davis founded Woodson in 2010 with backing from Tiger Management’s Julian Robertson Jr. He was an equity analyst at Tiger Management from 2006 through 2008, and from 2008 to 2009 worked as an equity analyst at Venesprie Capital, another Tiger-seeded long-short equity fund.
Woodson, which specializes in consumer stocks as well as tech, media, and telecom stocks, currently manages about $856 million. This is a little more than half the $1.55 billion it was managing at the end of June of 2021, according to a firm document earlier obtained by II.
The vast majority of Woodson’s longs and shorts are in North American stocks, mostly traded in the U.S. Its five largest longs account for more than 30 percent of its capital.
At the end of March, Peloton slipped from the number-one spot for the first time since 2019, according to Woodson’s 13F regulatory filings. It is now Woodson’s second-largest long, partly because the firm cut its stake by 15 percent in the first quarter and partly because the stock has plummeted in value. However, at the same time, the firm boosted its sizable stake in Peloton call options.
Shares of Peloton are down about 65 percent this year alone. For most of 2020, Peloton accounted for around 15 percent or so of Woodson’s U.S. long common stock assets, according to quarterly 13F filings.
Woodson’s largest long at the end of the first quarter was Funko, Inc., which licenses pop culture products. The stock has held up well this year, dropping less than 3 percent.
Meanwhile, Decker Outdoor became the third-largest long after Woodson boosted its stake in the footwear company by 30 percent. The stock is down more than 30 percent so far this year.
Rounding out the top-five U.S. common stock longs as of March 31 were Invitation Homes, the single-family home leasing company, and car wash chain Mister Car Wash, which went public last year. So far this year, these stocks are down about 17 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
