Dmitry Balyasny is the founder of Balyasny Asset Management, which reported $2.25 billion total assets in its last 13F filing. Balyasny graduated from Loyola University with a bachelor's degree in finance. Prior to forming Balyasny Asset Management in 2001, Balyasny was employed at Schonfeld Securities. Balyasny’s name was among the hedge funds being examined for alleged insider trading but no charges brought so far.
Balyasny Asset Management uses multi strategies and invests in the public equities and hedging markets worldwide. A summary table of Balyasny’s recent activities is below:
Security | Ticker | Value (x$1000) | Activity | Return |
Valero Energy Corp | 140,677 | 75% | -12.0% | |
United Parcel Service Inc | 91,683 | 69% | 1.0% | |
Nexen Inc | 91,482 | 14% | -8.2% | |
Nabors Industries Ltd | 85,438 | -1% | -19.6% | |
Tesoro Corp | 49,636 | New | -8.9% | |
Armstrong World Inds Inc | 47,719 | 5% | 1.2% | |
Watsco Inc | 41,302 | 88% | -1.1% | |
Pfizer Inc | 37,167 | -38% | 0.2% | |
Plains All Amern Pipeline | 35,052 | New | 3.3% | |
Bristol Myers Squibb Co | 34,568 | New | 11.4% | |
Chesapeake Energy Corp | 33,520 | New | -8.5% | |
S M Energy Co | 33,072 | New | 1.8% | |
Ternium S A | 28,482 | New | -13.0% | |
Willbros Group Inc Del | 25,330 | -6% | -20.0% | |
United Therapeutics Corp | 25,126 | 184% | -17.4% | |
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc | WPI | 24,022 | 132% | 24.7% |
Trex Company Inc | 23,413 | 1% | -23.7% | |
Delta Air Lines Inc | 22,540 | 387% | -4.6% | |
Dendreon Corp | 22,552 | 67% | 10.3% | |
Salesforce Com Inc | 22,375 | 458% | 17.3% | |
Value Weighted Return of Top Holdings | -5.4% | |||
1.9% | ||||
Balyasny's largest stock holdings have lost 5.4% since the end of first quarter 2011, vs. a 1.9% gain for the SPY.
Valero Energy was Balyasny's biggest investment at the end of March 2011. Valero Energy has lost 12% since then, underperforming the SPY’s 1.9% return. Balyasny has $141 million invested in Valero. Valero is one of the 30 stocks that are expected to beat the S&P 500 by three percentage points. Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management are other high profile hedge fund managers with Valero energy positions at the end of March. (Click here for the top holdings of David Tepper.)
United Parcel Service was Balyasny's second biggest investment at the end of March 2011. UPS has gained 1% since then, underperforming the SPY’s 1.9% return. Balyasny has $92 million invested in UPS. The stock has a market cap of $73.5 billion and P/E ratio of 19.5.
Tesoro was the Balyasny's biggest new investment at the end of March 2011. TSO has lost 8.9% since March, underperforming the SPY by a large margin. Balyasny had nearly $50 million invested at the end of March. TSO recently traded at $24.48 and has a market cap of $3.5 billion.
Nexen has lost 8.2% since March, underperforming the SPY by 10.1 percentage points. Balyasny had nearly $91 million invested at the end of March. NBR recently traded at $24.43. The stock has a market cap of $7 billion and P/E ratio of 52.
Several prominent hedge funds are going through a soft patch during the first half of this year (See 10 worst performing star hedge fund managers). We believe Balyasny’s recent poor performance in temporary and investors can benefit by focusing on his top stock picks.
Disclosure: I am long CHK.
