David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital in April extended its losses for the year, dropping 0.4 percent for the month. As a result, the New York hedge fund firm is down 2.2 percent for the year to date.
In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent in April, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 0.85 percent for the month.
To be fair, Greenlight was partially hurt by Thursday’s big market sell-off, which somewhat skewed April’s results. It also underscores the hazards of judging an investor by just a one-month period.
That said, it is still interesting to take a snapshot of the hedge fund’s key holdings to see how they fared.
For example, two of Greenlight’s three new long positions established in the first quarter lost money last month.
Chicago Bridge & Iron was up for April until it tumbled on the final day of the month. That sent it down 3.3 percent for April. The engineering and construction firm has a big exposure to the energy sector. Greenlight says it paid an average share price of $42.93, so it remains comfortably in the black.
Greenlight also returned to General Motors Co. in the first quarter. The stock in the big carmaker, however, dropped 6.5 percent in April, although it’s still slightly above Greenlight’s average purchase price of $34.62.
On the other hand, AerCap Holdings, the aircraft leasing company that was also added to the portfolio in the first quarter, advanced nearly 7 percent last month. Last year AerCap acquired American International Group’s leasing business on the cheap. “The company has been well managed and appears poised to grow earnings at a double-digit clip for the next several years,” Greenlight said in its first-quarter report.
Three of Greenlight’s six largest disclosed long positions entering April did very well, while the other three were generally flat.
The best performer in this group was Consol Energy, which surged 16 percent last month. However, it is still down for the year.
SunEdison jumped 5.5 percent for the month after gaining an impressive 23 percent in the first quarter.
Chip maker Micron Technology, a longtime Greenlight holding, rose 3.6 percent last month. However, Micron lost 23 percent in the first quarter.
On the other hand, tech favorite Apple inched up less than 1 percent, but it too suffered a sizable sell-off on Thursday. However, it remains up more than 13 percent for the year.
The price of gold was roughly flat last month, while ISS, a Danish company that provides cleaning and catering services, fell less than 1 percent in April.
On the short side, Greenlight was apparently hurt by its negative bet on Reynolds American, which acquired Lorillard. Shares of the tobacco giant rose more than 6 percent last month.
