Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Kansas City Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile asset managerss and hedge fund gurus returned to buyinb mode after taking financial lumps in the secon half of 2008 when the value of energy companu shares tanked along with the price of oil andnaturak gas. Prominent investors such as all-statr asset manager Paul Tudor Jones, energy maverick T. Boons Pickens and hedge fund investod George Soros dipped their toes in the energg pool once again and grabbed multiplw stakes inHouston companies, according to regulatory statementes filed this month. Jones, who oversees Tudor Investmengt Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-based energy companies or major players with a significantg presence inthe region, and also took a new positiojn in Waste Management still a big favorite of Microsoft Corp. founderd Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spent the past 12 months lobbyinbg for his plan to help the countryt kick the imported oil still knowsa fossil-fuel bargainh when he sees one. The Texas oil mavemn took new positions in a wide range of energy companieswith beaten-down stock prices at the end of a year that the bellwethee Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 Pickens dabbled in servicew players such as Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburtonh Co.
, natural gas shale producer ChesapeakeEnergy Corp. and high-profilw exploration and production company AnadarkoPetroleum Corp. Soros took even bigger bites inthe process, gaining new positions in serviced players Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherforxd International Inc. — after selling off his Schlumbergetstake — while adding to his positiojn in . Besides his substantial switchinto Weatherford, Sorows made another big move in late Apripl involving a Houston-based company by adding 3 million more shares of Plaina Exploration and Production Co., boosting his stak e to nearly 6.
5 million Energy analysts and asset investment managerss who follow these movers and shakers say that after energh stock prices kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highe in mid-2008, it’s been a whilr since the notion of value investing could be appliedc to the sector. “Timing is says Eddie Allen, senior partnere with Eagle GlobalAdvisors LLC. “Thered may have been an over-reaction in the fall with the sell-oftf of oil stocks. There’sx still a lot of volatility todeal with, but thes investors did well in anticipating the rise (in oil that we’ve seen so far this year, from the mid-$30a to $60.
” Allen says that value investors are still playinv a bit of a waiting game. He notes that stoci prices are down, natural gas has not followedd oil’s recovery in 2009, and there are concerns that prices couldc stay depressed asinventories build. Therew is also more he adds, about possiblde consolidationas mid-cap exploration and production companieas eye the pickings amongg smaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researcnhat Tudor, Pickering, Holt Co. Securities Inc., says Pickens, Soross and Tudor might have even added more shareas during the quarter if energy stocks had not ralliedx and moved a bit highetthan expected.
“The market took off so stronglh in the first quarter that investorw took a pause waiting for a pullback that never They might have wanted more but the stocks got away a littlr bit onthe upside,” Pickering says. All thingsw considered, energy was the hottes investment gamein town. Says “The overall theme here is that investors became reengagerdin energy, which dramatically out-performed the rest of the markeyt in the first quarter, as peopld were just less terrified abourt the state of the world (economy).” The energy resurgence partty had some notable no-shows. While Pickens and Soroxs were pickingnew favorites, othe r big-name investors were still cleaninbg house.
Warren Buffett sold 13.7 milliom ConocoPhillips shares in the quartert to reduce his stake to a stillsizable 71.2 million shares. Buffet conceded to shareholder of his BerkshireHathaway Inc. asseft management firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillips last year when oil pricezs peakedat $147 a barrel was a mistake.