Yahoo Finance Daniel Loeb's Third Point exits Alibaba, Microsoft, and Netflix
Activist investor Daniel S. Loeb's hedge fund $17 billion Third Point LLC exited its positions in Alibaba (BABA), Microsoft (MSFT), and Netflix (NFLX) during the fourth quarter, according to the fund's latest 13-f filing.
During the quarter, Third Point sold its 1.25 million shares of Netflix, 4.1 million shares of Microsoft, and 4.045 million shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the filing shows.
Meanwhile, Third Point loaded up on Campbell Soup (CPB), adding another 3 million shares, an increase of 16%. The fund last held 21 million shares of the soup maker, making it the second largest equity long holding. That’s about 7% of the Campbell’s 302 million shares outstanding.
Campbell Soup is one of Loeb’s recent activist targets. During the quarter, Campbell Soup agreed to expand the size of its board by adding two of Third Point’s independent directors. The hedge fund also provided “constructive input” in the selection of the new CEO.
Other top buys include Shire (SHPG) and Salesforce (CRM). The also fund initiated a new position in Cigna (CI), snapping up 575,000 shares.
Elsewhere, Third Point slashed its PayPal (PYPL) stake by more than half, selling more than 5 million shares. PayPal remained a top five stock holding.
Third Point Offshore Fund dropped 6.2% during a volatile December ending the year down 11.1%, while the S&P slipped 9% during the month to finish the year down 4.4%.
Third Point posted gains of 2.9% in January driven by the performance of its long equity investments.
Hedge funds of a certain size only have to report their long equity filings in quarterly filings known as 13-Fs. These regulatory filings come out 45 days after the end of each quarter, so it's possible the positions could have changed. The filings for the fourth-quarter are due this week.
Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
