Israel Englander is the billionaire behind Millennium Management. He started the hedge fund in 1989 with $35 million and only a B.S. in finance. Since then, Englander has built Millennium into a $11.1 billion hedge fund, almost 20% of which was added in 2010 alone (Read more about Englander’s Millennium here). Englander’s strategy is to exploit inefficiencies in the market, even very small ones. To this point, the Millennium fund maintains over 2,000 positions which are managed by over 120 professionals.
Since the end of March, Englander’s top picks have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.5 percentage points. Here is how each of these 25 stocks performed during the past four months:
CompanyName | Ticker | value | Return |
C V S CAREMARK CORP | 92902 | -0% | |
WELLCARE HEALTH PLANS | 76030 | -7% | |
ELAN PLC | 75217 | 44% | |
BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORP | 72736 | -11% | |
COMMUNITY HEALTH SYS | 66249 | -44% | |
DEVON ENERGY CORP NEW | 66027 | -22% | |
AETNA INC NEW | 65283 | 2% | |
S M ENERGY CO | 62698 | 7% | |
PIONEER NATURAL RES | 61246 | -20% | |
CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP | 59902 | -6% | |
SPDR GOLD TRUST | 55944 | 15% | |
LUFKIN INDUSTRIES INC | 50139 | -25% | |
WELLPOINT INC | 49389 | -10% | |
PETROHAWK ENERGY CORP | 49253 | 55% | |
CHEVRON CORP NEW | 46536 | -9% | |
CABOT OIL & GAS CORP | 44462 | 28% | |
NEXTERA ENERGY INC | 42776 | -4% | |
AUXILIUM PHARMACEUTICALS | 42152 | -30% | |
CONOCOPHILLIPS | 41479 | -15% | |
HEALTH MANAGEMENT ASSOC | 39014 | -27% | |
MCKESSON H B O C INC | 37765 | -5% | |
ENERGEN CORP | 36727 | -17% | |
HCA HOLDINGS INC | 35871 | -32% | |
PLAINS EXPLORATION & PROD CO | 35662 | -4% | |
DENDREON CORP | 35604 | -69% |
Englander’s largest losses since the end of the first quarter were in the pharmaceutical company Dendreon Corp (DNDN), in which he lost 69%. While this was a significant loss, there are a lot of major players in the hedge fund market who had very large positions in Dendreon, like Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group (Check out Griffin’s top stock picks here) and Steven Cohen’s $16.3 billion SAC Capital Advisors. Steve Cohen lost nearly $200 Million in one day because of the decline in Dendreon (Read about Cohen’s top picks here).
Englander also sustained major losses through his position in Community Health System (CYH); he lost 44% since the end of March. He also lost big on his positions in HCA Holdings (HCA) and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (AUXL), losing 32% and 30% respectively.
Millennium Management was able to generate major returns through Englander’s position in Petrohawk Energy Corp (HK), gaining 55% since the end of the first quarter. Ken Griffin is also a fan. Both hedge funds increased their respective positions by approximately 20%. Englander was also able to produce a significant return via his position in Elan Plc (ELN), gaining 44% since March 31, 2011.
We like Israel Englander and believe that investors can beat the market by imitating his top stock picks.
Disclosure: I am long CHK, COP.
