Todd Walker's  Instablog

Paulson & Co, Adage Capital, D.E. Shaw and ESL Investments all saw their US equity assets jump by over $1 billion over the 2nd Quarter of 2009. The biggest gainer, John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, saw its US equity assets increase by $7,763mm to a reach a total of $17,127mm. A significant portion of the hedge fund manager’s increase can be attributed to brand new investments in Bank of America (BAC): $2,217mm / 167,990,464 shares, and Sun Microsystems Inc (JAVA): $682mm / 74,000,000 shares, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS): $294mm / 2,000,000 shares, and Pepsi Bottling Group Inc (PBG) $283mm / 8,371,800 shares.

The next biggest gainer was Boston-based Adage Capital Partners, which saw its assets jump by $2,949mm to end the quarter at $15,353mm. The firm was founded by Harvard Management Co veterans Robert Atchinson and Phil Gross. Like Paulson, Adage Ca did a lot of buying over the second quarter. The hedge fund’s top buys included: Wyeth (WYE): $209mm / 4,615,700 shares, United Technologies Corp (UTX) $165mm / 3,177,864 shares, General Electric Co (GE): $141mm / 12,099,703 shares, and Schering Plough Corp (SGP): $92mm / 3,680,300 shares.

New York-based D.E. Shaw & Co, saw its assets rise by $2,239mm to $19,223mm. The firm's approach is highly quantitative and it uses a suite of proprietary models designed to exploit several independent sources of market inefficiency. The firm’s top buys were Target Corp (TGT): $125mm / 3,179,498 shares, Banco Bradesco S.A. (BBD) $117mm / 7,962,390 shares, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI): $97mm / 1,329,745 shares.

Rounding out the top five US Hedge Funds are Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments and Jim Simons’ Renaissance. Despite recent criticisms (please see earlier article) , Greenwich-based ESL saw its assets rise by $1,007mm to $9,709mm. While Renaissance Technologies captured the top spot as the largest US Equity of hedge fund manager, the quant-shop was the only manager out of the top five to see its assets fall. At the end of Q2 2009, Renaissance’s assets stood at $24,265mm, down by $570mm.

For more information on other top hedge funds and portfolio managers, please visit, HedgeTracker’s Complete Hedge Fund Directory

Disclosure: Long GE, WYE