Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Boston Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile asset manager s and hedge fund gurus returned to buying mode after takingf financial lumps in the second half of 2008 when the valuse of energy company shares tanke d along with the price of oil andnaturap gas. Prominent investors such as all-staf asset manager Paul Tudor Jones, energgy maverick T. Boone Pickens and hedge fund investofr George Soros dipped their toes in the energy pool once agaihn and grabbed multiple stakes inHoustonn companies, according to regulatory statements fileds this month. Jones, who oversees Tudoe Investment Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-base energy companies or major playerd with a significant presence in the and also took a new position in WasteManagemeny Inc., still a big favorite of Microsoftr Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spent the past 12 monthd lobbying for his plan to help the countrh kick the imported oil still knowsa fossil-fuel bargaihn when he sees one. The Texas oil mavej took new positions in a wide range of energy companiezwith beaten-down stock pricesd at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwethet Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 percent. Pickens dabbleds in services players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburtonn Co.
, natural gas shald producer ChesapeakeEnergy Corp. and high-profil e exploration and production company AnadarkopPetroleum Corp. Soros took even biggert bites inthe process, gainingg new positions in services players Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherfordd International Inc. — afterr selling off his Schlumbergerstake — while addingf to his position in . Besides his substantiaol switchinto Weatherford, Soros made anothert big move in late Aprilp involving a Houston-based companyu by adding 3 million more shares of Plaina Exploration and Production Co., boosting his stak to nearly 6.
5 million Energy analysts and asset investmenft managers who follow these movers and shakers say that aftet energy stock prices kept climbing in 2007 towar d lofty highs in mid-2008, it’s been a while sincw the notion of value investing coulds be applied to the “Timing is everything,” says Eddie senior partner with Eagle Global Advisors LLC. “Thers may have been an over-reaction in the fall with the sell-ofc of oil stocks. There’s still a lot of volatility to deal but these investors did well in anticipatingy therise (in oil prices) that we’ve seen so far this from the mid-$30s to $60.
” Allen says that value investors are stil l playing a bit of a waitinhg game. He notes that stock prices are natural gas has notfollowed oil’s recovery in 2009, and therr are concerns that prices could stay depressedc as inventories build. There is also more he adds, about possibl consolidation as mid-cap exploration and production companies eye the pickings amonghsmaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researchhat Tudor, Pickering, Holt Co. Securities Inc., says Pickens, Sorozs and Tudor might have even added more shares durinyg the quarter if energy stocks had not ralliede and moved a bit higherthan expected.
“The market took off so strongl y in the first quarter that investorzs took a pause waiting for a pullback thatnever came. They mighg have wanted more but the stockes got away a little bit on the Pickering says. All thingw considered, energy was the hottest investment game in Says Pickering: “The overall theme here is that investors becamw reengaged in energy, which dramaticallgy out-performed the rest of the market in the first quarter, as people were just less terrifiesd about the state of the world (economy).” The energy resurgence party had some notablre no-shows.
While Pickens and Soros were pickinfgnew favorites, other big-name investors were still cleaning Warren Buffett sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillips shares in the quarter to reducre his stake to a still sizabld 71.2 million shares. Buffet conceded to shareholderw of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillipa last year when oil prices peakedat $147 a barrekl was a mistake.