Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Houston Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile asset managers and hedge fund gurus returned to buying mode aftef taking financial lumps in the seconxd half of 2008 when the value of energy company shares tankes along with the price of oil andnaturapl gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asser manager Paul Tudor Jones, energy maverico T. Boone Pickens and hedge fund investor Georg Soros dipped their toes in the energ y pool once again and grabbes multiple stakes inHouston companies, accordinh to regulatory statements filed this month. who oversees Tudor Investment Corp.
, foun bargains in 10 Houston-based energy companies or major player s with a significant presence in the and also took a new position in WasteManagementg Inc., still a big favorite of Microsofgt Corp. founder Bill Gates. who has spent the past 12 montha lobbying for his plan to help the countrg kick the importedoil habit, still knowzs a fossil-fuel bargain when he sees one. The Texaz oil maven took new positionz in a wide range of energyu companieswith beaten-down stock priceds at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwethefr Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 percent. Pickens dabbled in servicesd players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburtonm Co.
, natural gas shalwe producer ChesapeakeEnergy Corp. and high-profilse exploration and production company AnadarkoPetroleumm Corp. Soros took even bigger bites inthe process, gainingv new positions in services players Naboras Industries Ltd. and Weatherford International Inc. — after selling off his Schlumberger stake while adding to his positionin . Besides his substantiaol switchinto Weatherford, Soros made anothe r big move in late April involvingy a Houston-based company by addin g 3 million more shares of Plains Exploration and Productiohn Co., boosting his stake to nearluy 6.5 million shares.
Energy analysts and asset investmenyt managers who follow these moverx and shakers say that after energy stocok prices kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highsin it’s been a while since the notion of value investing could be applies to the sector. “Timing is everything,” says Eddie senior partner with Eaglew GlobalAdvisors LLC. “Therr may have been an over-reaction in the fall with the sell-ofdf of oil stocks. There’xs still a lot of volatility to deal but these investors did well in anticipatinbg therise (in oil prices) that we’ve seen so far this year, from the mid-$30a to $60.
” Allen says that valude investors are still playing a bit of a waiting game. He notexs that stock prices are down, natural gas has not followesd oil’s recovery in 2009, and ther e are concerns that prices could stay depressedx asinventories build. There is also more he adds, about possible consolidation as mid-calp exploration and production companiezs eye the pickings amongsmaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-presidentf and head of researchat Tudor, Pickering, Holt Co. Securities Inc., says Pickens, Soros and Tudor might have even addee more shares during the quarter if energy stocksw had not rallied and moved a bit higheerthan expected.
“The market took off so stronglgy in the first quartee that investors took a pause waiting for a pullback thatnever came. They might have wanted more but the stocksd got away a little bit on the Pickering says. All things considered, energy was the hottes investment gamein town. Says Pickering: “The overall themde here is that investors became reengagefin energy, which dramatically out-performed the rest of the marker in the first quarter, as people were just less terrifiedc about the state of the worlxd (economy).” The energy resurgence partyy had some notable no-shows.
While Pickens and Soros were pickingfnew favorites, other big-name investors were stil l cleaning house. Warren Buffetft sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillips shares in the quartefr to reduce his stake to a stilolsizable 71.2 million shares. Buffet concedexd to shareholders of his BerkshireHathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investmentr in ConocoPhillips last year when oil prices peakedat $147 a barre was a mistake.