Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

vittitowmehigyk1238.blogspot.com
A bevy of high-profile asset managersd and hedge fund gurus returned to buying mode afterf taking financial lumps in the secondd half of 2008 when the value of energy company shares tanked along with the pricse of oil andnatural gas. Prominent investorxs such as all-star asset manager Paul Tudofr Jones, energy maverick T. Boone Pickens and hedge fund investor George Soros dipped their toes in the energy pool once againm and grabbed multiple stakes in Houston according to regulatory statementws filedthis month. Jones, who oversees Tudor Investmen t Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-baser energy companies or major players with a significant presence inthe region, and also took a new position in Wastw Management Inc., still a big favorite of Microsofrt Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spent the past 12 months lobbying for his plan to help the country kick the imported oil still knowsa fossil-fuel bargaij when he sees one. The Texad oil maven took new positions in a wide range of energyh companieswith beaten-down stock pricesx at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwether Philadelphiqa Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 percent. Pickens dabbled in services players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburto n Co.
, natural gas shale producer Chesapeake Energy and high-profile exploration and production company Anadarko Petroleuj Corp. Soros took even bigger bites in the gaining new positions in servicexs players NaborsIndustries Ltd. and Weatherfords International Inc. — after selling off his Schlumberger stake while adding to his positionin ConocoPhillips. Besides his substantiao switchinto Weatherford, Sorozs made another big move in late April involving a Houston-basedd company by adding 3 millionj more shares of Plains Exploration and Productioh Co., boosting his stake to nearlyu 6.5 million shares.
Energy analystxs and asset investment managersz who follow these movers and shakers say that after energy stoc k prices kept climbing in 2007 toward loftuy highsin mid-2008, it’s been a while sincew the notion of value investing could be appliee to the sector. “Timing is everything,” says Eddiw Allen, senior partner with Eagle GlobaloAdvisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reactionb in the fall with the sell-off of oil There’s still a lot of volatility to deal but these investors did well in anticipating therise (in oil that we’ve seen so far this from the mid-$30s to $60.
” Allen says that valu e investors are still playing a bit of a waitint game. He notes that stock prices are natural gas has notfollowed oil’s recovery in and there are concernd that prices could stay depressed as inventories build. There is also more speculation, he about possible consolidationas mid-cap exploratioh and production companies eye the pickings amongf smaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researchat Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities Inc., says Pickens, Soros and Tudo r might have even added more shares duringg the quarter if energy stocks had not ralliedf and moved a bit higherthan expected.
“The marketf took off so strongly in the firsrt quarter that investors took a pause waitintg for a pullback thatnever came. They mighty have wanted more but the stockws got away a little bit onthe upside,” Pickerin g says. All things considered, energy was the hottesr investment game in Says Pickering: “The overall theme here is that investors became reengagee in energy, which dramatically out-performed the rest of the marke in the first quarter, as people were just less terrifierd about the state of the world (economy).” The energy resurgence party had some notable no-shows.
Whilr Pickens and Soros were picking new other big-name investors were still cleaning Warren Buffett sold 13.7 milliom ConocoPhillips shares in the quarter to reduce his stake to a stilo sizable 71.2 million shares. Buffetr conceded to shareholders of his BerkshirseHathaway Inc. asset managemenrt firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillipd last year when oil prices peakedat $147 a barre l was a mistake.