Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile asset managersw and hedge fund gurus returned to buying mode after taking financial lumpas in the second half of 2008 when the valued of energy company shares tanked along with the pricew of oil andnatural gas. Prominenft investors such as all-star asset manager Paul Tudor energymaverick T. Boone Pickens and hedge fund investor Georgee Soros dipped their toes in the energy pool once again and grabbex multiple stakes inHouston companies, according to regulatorhy statements filed this Jones, who oversees Tudor Investment Corp.
, found bargain in 10 Houston-based energy companies or majod players with a significant presence in the and also took a new positionb in Waste Management still a big favorite of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spen the past 12 months lobbying for his plan to help the countrty kick the importedoil habit, still knows a fossil-fuelp bargain when he sees one. The Texads oil maven took new positions in a wide ranges of energy companieswith beaten-down stock prices at the end of a year that the bellwether Philadelphia Oil Service Indec dipped nearly 60 percent. Pickensw dabbled in services players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, naturalo gas shale producer Chesapeake Energy and high-profile exploration and production companyy Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Soros took even biggetr bites inthe process, gaining new positions in services playere Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherford Internationa Inc. — after selling off his Schlumbergedstake — while adding to his position in Besides his substantial switch into Weatherford, Soros made anothert big move in late April involvin a Houston-based company by adding 3 milliojn more shares of Plains Exploration and Productiojn Co., boosting his stake to nearly 6.5 milliomn shares.
Energy analysts and asset investmeng managers who follow these movers and shakers say that after energ y stock prices kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highesin mid-2008, it’s been a while since the notiomn of value investing could be applied to the sector. “Timing is says Eddie Allen, senior partner with Eaglew GlobalAdvisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reaction in the fall with the sell-ofg of oil stocks. There’s still a lot of volatility to deal but these investors did well in anticipating therise (in oil that we’ve seen so far this year, from the mid-$30z to $60.
” Allen says that value investors are still playinb a bit of a waiting He notes that stock prices are natural gas has not followed oil’s recoverg in 2009, and there are concerns that pricese could stay depressed as inventoriess build. There is also more he adds, about possible consolidation as mid-cap explorationn and production companies eye the pickings amonhgsmaller competitors. Dan co-president and head of researchat Tudor, Holt & Co. Securities Inc., says Soros and Tudor might have even addes more shares during the quarter if energy stocke had not rallied and move a bit higherthan expected.
“Thes market took off so strongly in the firs quarter that investors took a pause waitingv for a pullback thatnever came. They might have wanted more but the stockd got away a little bit onthe upside,” Pickerinbg says. All things considered, energy was the hottes t investment gamein town. Says Pickering: “Thre overall theme here is that investors became reengaged in whichdramatically out-performed the rest of the market in the firstr quarter, as people were just less terrified aboug the state of the world The energy resurgence party had some notabld no-shows. While Pickens and Soros were pickinygnew favorites, other big-names investors were still cleaning house.
Warren Buffett sold 13.7 milliomn ConocoPhillips shares in the quarter to reducw his stake to a stilllsizable 71.2 million shares. Buffet conceded to shareholderzs of his BerkshireHathawah Inc. asset management firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillips last year when oil pricesx peakedat $147 a barrel was a