Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners shrugged off the stock market’s overall poor performance in January, posting a profit for the month.
Jana Partners Fund, which is comprised of three different portfolios, gained 0.3 percent in January. Jana Nirvana Fund gained 0.7 percent.
The New York–based hedge fund firm’s performance was led by its stake in IT networking company Juniper Networks, its newest activist position, which jumped nearly 18 percent last month.
As we recently reported, in its year-end letter to clients, Jana disclosed that it had engaged Juniper “on the multiple avenues” it believes could unlock shareholder value. The firm says it is attracted to the company’s “undemanding valuation, the tailwind of a favorable telecom spending cycle on required network upgrades, a frustrated shareholder base and the potential for a change of perspective and sense of urgency from new CEO Shaygan Kheradpir.”
Mallinckrodt, the Irish pharmaceutical company that was Jana’s biggest commitment in the third quarter, jumped more than 10.6 percent in January.
Data center giant Equinix, which Jana started buying in the second quarter of 2013, advanced more than 4 percent.
Master limited partnership Energy Transfer Equity, which was Jana’s best performer in the fourth quarter and the second-best in all of 2013, picked up another 2 percent in January.
The hedge fund firm also made a little less than 1 percent on a few other positions, including Cameron International, which Jana began aggressively buying after the company missed earnings expectations in October. Jana calls the company the market-leading provider of fluid control products to the energy sector.
Of course, Jana lost money on a number of positions, including two high-profile activist stocks.
Oil States International fell about 7.6 percent while Ashland slipped 4 percent.
We earlier reported that Jana told clients in its year-end letter that it plans to close its Nirvana Fund to new investors on or about April 1. In addition, it said it may close Jana Partners to new investors “sometime in the future, depending on the opportunity set.”
Nirvana was launched in April 2007 to co-invest in select ideas of the Jana Master Fund in a more concentrated portfolio. The fund has fewer positions, and each position is 1.5 times or more the size of the analogous Jana Master holding.
