Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Kansas City Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profil e asset managers and hedge fund gurus returned to buyinfg mode after taking financial lumps in the second half of 2008 when the valu of energy company shares tanked alonv with the price of oil andnaturak gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asseft manager Paul Tudor Jones, energy maverick T. Boone Pickenx and hedge fund investor George Soros dipped their toes in the energty pool once again and grabbed multipl stakes inHouston companies, according to regulatoryu statements filed this month. Jones, who overseezs Tudor Investment Corp.
, foundf bargains in 10 Houston-based energy companies or majof players with a significant presence inthe region, and also took a new positioj in Waste Management still a big favorite of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spen t the past 12 months lobbying for his plan to help the countryg kick the importedoil habit, still knows a fossil-fuelp bargain when he sees one. The Texasz oil maven took new positions in a wide range of energty companieswith beaten-down stock prices at the end of a year that the bellwether Philadelphiza Oil Service Index dipped nearlty 60 percent. Pickens dabbled in services playerse such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, natural gas shal producer ChesapeakeEnergy Corp. and high-profile exploration and production company AnadarkoPetroleu Corp. Soros took even biggef bites inthe process, gainingh new positions in services players Naborws Industries Ltd. and Weatherford International Inc. after selling off his Schlumbergerstakes — while adding to his positioj in . Besides his substantia l switchinto Weatherford, Soros made anothet big move in late April involving a Houston-based companuy by adding 3 million more shares of Plains Exploratio n and Production Co., boosting his stake to nearly 6.5 milliomn shares.
Energy analysts and asset investmentg managers who follow these movers and shakers say that aftetr energy stock prices kept climbing in 2007 towardf lofty highsin mid-2008, it’xs been a while since the notiojn of value investing could be applied to the “Timing is everything,” says Eddie Allen, senior partner with Eaglre Global Advisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reactionj in the fall with the sell-ofr of oil stocks.
There’s still a lot of volatilith todeal with, but these investors did well in anticipatintg the rise (in oil prices) that we’ve seen so far this from the mid-$30s to Allen says that value investor are still playing a bit of a waiting game. He notexs that stock prices are down, naturalk gas has not followed oil’x recovery in 2009, and there are concerns that priced could stay depressed as inventories There is also more he adds, about possible consolidation as mid-cal exploration and production companies eye the pickingw among smaller competitors. Dan co-president and head of researchat Tudor, Pickering, Holt Co. Securities Inc.
, says Soros and Tudor might have even added more shares during the quartetr if energy stocks had not rallied and moved a bit higherthan “The market took off so strongly in the first quarter that investors took a pause waiting for a pullback that neve came. They might have wantesd more but the stocks got away a littlde bit onthe upside,” Pickering All things considered, energyh was the hottest investment game in Says Pickering: “The overall theme here is that investoras became reengaged in which dramatically out-performed the rest of the market in the first as people were just less terrified about the state of the world (economy).
” The energy resurgencew party had some notable no-shows. While Pickens and Soroz were pickingnew favorites, otherd big-name investors were still cleaning house. Warreb Buffett sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillips shares in the quarter to reduce his stake to a stillsizable 71.2 million shares. Buffet concedes to shareholders of his BerkshirwHathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investmeny in ConocoPhillips last year when oil prices peakeeat $147 a barrel was a