Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they've bought and sold, via 13-F filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.
Today let's look at one of the biggest hedge fund companies, Eton Park, founded by Eric Mindich in 2004. Mindich had spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs before that, becoming, at age 27, its youngest partner. Mindich invests in both long and short positions on stocks and in private equity investments and specializes in merger arbitrage. He reportedly nearly tripled the value of Eton Park in its first seven years but has posted some bumpy results lately, causing some shareholders to pull out.
The company's reportable stock portfolio totaled $4.9 billion in value as of June 30.
Interesting developments
So what does Eton Park's latest quarterly 13-F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details.
New holdings include Ireland-based biotech concern Elan
Among holdings in which Eton Park increased its stake was Autodesk
Eton Park reduced its stake in lots of companies, including E-Commerce China Dangdang
Dangdang, reportedly China's largest bookseller and also viewed as a Chinese version of Amazon.com, is selling a lot more than books these days. But it faces more challenging competition than Amazon did as it grew, and China's near-term growth rate seems to be slowing. Indeed, even Dangdang's customer growth is slowing. If you decide to invest in it, you should prepare for it to put growth ahead of profits for now, following the Amazon playbook.
Finally, Eton Park unloaded several companies, such as oil giant BP
We should never blindly copy any investor's moves, no matter how talented the investor. But it can be useful to keep an eye on what smart folks are doing, and 13-F forms can be great places to find intriguing candidates for our portfolios.
If you'd rather own Amazon.com than eBay or Dangdang but aren't sure if it's still a smart buy, check out our premium report on Amazon, which runs through everything investors need to know about the company. It also comes with a full year of updates as key news hits, so click here now to get started.