| Barry Rosenstein, managing partner and co-portfolio manager of JANA Partners, speaks during the 20th Annual Sohn Investment Conference (Photo Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg). |
Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners has emerged as one of the more consistent hedge fund managers over the past year or so.
In April the sometime activist firm posted its tenth straight profitable month and its 11th in the past 12 months. The New York firm’s JANA Partners gained 0.9 percent last month, while its JANA Nirvana Fund climbed 1.3 percent. As a result, the two funds are up 5.3 percent and 8 percent, respectively, for the year to date. This compares with a 7.2 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
JANA Partners has compounded at an 11.4 percent annualized clip since its April 2001 inception, compared with 6.7 percent for the S&P 500. JANA Nirvana, which typically maintains a greater gross and net exposure than the flagship fund, has compounded at 9.7 percent per year since April 2007, compared with 7.6 percent for the benchmark.
JANA enjoyed a nice boost in April from its newest disclosed activist position in Whole Foods Market. On April 10 the firm disclosed it owned 8.3 percent of the high-end grocer’s shares and was part of a group that controlled nearly 9 percent of the stock. Shares of the supermarket chain surged more than 22 percent in April alone.
Two other new activist positions disclosed in late February have produced mixed results this year. For example, shares of jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. fell nearly 4 percent in April. However, the stock is up nearly 19 percent since JANA started buying it on January 10.
We earlier reported that JANA and Francesco Trapani, the former chief executive officer at Bulgari and a leader in the luxury goods industry, jointly announced a settlement with Tiffany whereby Trapani and two other industry luminaries joined the board of directors.
Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. rose about 3.3 percent last month. However, the stock is down 4 percent for the year. In February the drugmaker agreed to add three new directors and repurchase $2 billion worth of stock.
As for JANA’s largest positions, it is not known which stocks dominated the portfolio entering April. Quarterly disclosures of U.S. longs are not due to be filed with regulators for another two weeks.
Shares of Liberty Broadband Corp., JANA’s third-largest long at year-end, rose 5.7 percent last month. HD Supply Holdings, an industrial distributor, was flat last month. Conagra Brands, JANA’s largest U.S. long position at year-end, fell nearly 4 percent last month and is now down about 2 percent for the year.
