Greenlight, Third Point, Pershing Square All Down In June

July 3, 2015

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By Roger Thomas. Originally published at ValueWalk.

Monthly returns for June are out for Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE), Pershing Square and Third Point Re. Both investment funds had a shaky run in the last month of the second quarter. Greenlight Capital is now down 3.2% for the year whereas Third Point is up 4.9%, and Pershing is up 4.6% in the first half of 2015.

Greenlight Capital down 4.4% in June

According to returns that were updated on the fund’s website, David Einhorn‘s reinvestment vehicle took in a loss of 4.4% in the month of June. The poor performance in the previous month has pushed Greenlight’s total return for the first half in the negative territory.

Greenlight’s top holding, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Inc, where the fund owns 7.43 million shares, suffered a loss of 3.7% in trading in June. The bigger loser, however, was CONSOL Energy, the fund’s second largest holding. The oil and gas explorer and coal miner was down 22% last month, thus putting a dent in Greenlight’s performance.

In a note seen by WSJ that was sent to Greenlight’s clients, Einhorn said that major losses came from a position in Micron Tech, whereas CONSOL Energy contributed slightly lesser to the net loss.

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Einhorn’s longtime holding, also slipped nearly 7% in intra-month trading. Greenlight holds 9.5 million shares of the company. The semiconductor company, Micron Technology further made matters worse for the hedge fund, as its stock ended June with a 32.5% loss. Greenlight holds 33.55 million shares of Micron Tech.

According to the fund’s stats, Greenlight’s top holdings are Apple, CONSOL Energy, General Motors, gold, Micron Technology and SunEdison. At the end of June, the fund’s portfolio was split in 104% long and 83% short exposure.

Third Point and Greenlight’s investments in Greece

Both Greenlight Capital and Third Point have exposure in Greece as well. Third Point has a separate fund for investments in Greece, the Third Point Hellenic Recovery Fund. At the beginning of the year, Third Point initiated a 20% stake in Greek online auto insurer Hellas Direct.

While there was no update on how Third Point’s Greece-focused fund did during the recent pressures on the Greek economy, Greenlight did say that it lost money in Greek banks over the last few months. However, it was not a major detractor as its total exposure in the sector was reduced to less than 1% of AUM at the end of June.

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Third Point slips by 0.8% in June

After making a decent return through most of the year, Third Point was down 0.8% in June. According to the fund’s 13f filings, the fund’s top holdings are in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), Actavis plc (NYSE:ACT), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) Co, Ally Financial and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) Inc. However, this is most likely not the full picture of Third Point’s top exposure since Dan Loeb has many investments in foreign countries as well.

In the first quarter letter, Loeb discussed his positions in Japan, including Fanuc and IHI. While Dan Loeb had good things to say about Fanuc, which it called the Apple of Japan, he was less than enthusiastic about IHI. The latter manufactures and sells engine platforms and spare parts to the Aerospace and Defence industry. Loeb said that the company has failed to protect shareholders and has a habit of spending capital irresponsibly.

In U.S, Third Point discussed holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Brands and Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN) Corp.Yum’s stock is up 25% for the year whereas Devon Energy is down 5% YTD, losing 9% in June alone.

Ackman also had a rough June and was down nearly 4%. However, he still has strong returns for the year, up 4.6%. See his June stat sheet below.