Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners, the sometime-activist, flagship long-short equity fund managed by the New York firm of the same name, posted another strong monthly performance. This means the hedge fund manager has been profitable for eight straight months and nine of the past 10.
Specifically, Rosenstein’s main fund, JANA Partners, gained 3.4 percent in February, bringing its gain for the year to a solid 4 percent. Jana Nirvana, the firm’s more turbo-charged fund, surged 5.2 percent last month and is now up 6.1 percent for the year.
This compares with the 5.9 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, which of course is never short and does not charge fees.
Jana’s results in February and this year have been led in large part by its two newest activist targets, both of which were disclosed around the same time. In late February Jana disclosed it owned 4.9 percent of Tiffany. The hedge fund firm —along with Francesco Trapani, the former chief executive officer at Bulgari — jointly announced a settlement with the high-end jewelry retailer whereby Trapani, a leader in the luxury goods industry, and two other industry luminaries will join the board of directors.
The stock returned nearly 17 percent last month and has gained more than 18 percent since Jana started buying the stock on January 10. It paid between $77.19 and $82.36 for its shares, according to a regulatory filing.
Around the same time that JANA disclosed its Tiffany stake, it jointly announced a settlement with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Under the deal, the drug giant agreed to add three new directors and would repurchase $2 billion worth of stock. Bristol-Myers said in a press release at the time that since JANA became a shareholder in the fourth quarter of 2016, members of the board and management have held discussions with the investor “to better understand their views.”
Shares of BMS surged more than 15 percent in February. However, they are still down nearly 3 percent for the year; the company had suffered some setbacks in January with one of its lung cancer treatments.
As we have reported on several occasions, JANA’s sharp rebound since July coincides with its major revamping of its U.S. long portfolio.
In the fourth quarter, JANA of course continued to make changes to its portfolio, but not to the same extent as the earlier quarters in 2016. At year-end, its four largest U.S. longs were previous positions.
Shares of ConAgra Brands, its largest U.S. long holding, rose about 5.4 percent in February. In the December quarter JANA cut its stake in the food processor by more than one-fifth.
HD Supply Holding, which zoomed to become the second largest holding after JANA boosted its position by about 75 percent, returned about 1.7 percent last month.
Liberty Broadband, its third-largest long, was roughly flat in February. However, it is up more than 16 percent for the year.
Three of JANA’s 10 largest common stock longs were new positions established in the fourth quarter, including Bristol-Myers Squibb. Cloud computing specialist Salesforce.com, another new position established in the fourth quarter, added about 19 percent in the first two months of the year. Transdigm Group, its tenth-largest long and a new investment in the fourth quarter, surged 17 percent in February. However, shares of the aircraft components maker are up just a little over 3 percent for the year.
