Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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A bevy of high-profile asset managerse and hedge fund gurus returned to buyingf mode after taking financial lumps in the second half of 2008 when the value of energy company share tanked along with the price of oil andnaturao gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asse manager Paul Tudor Jones, energy maverick T. Boone Pickene and hedge fund investor George Soros dipper their toes in the energy pool once agaih and grabbed multiple stakes inHouston companies, accordingh to regulatory statements filed this month. Jones, who overseezs Tudor Investment Corp.
, found bargaines in 10 Houston-based energy companies or major playerx with a significant presence inthe region, and also took a new positionh in Waste Management Inc., still a big favorit e of Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. who has spent the past 12 month lobbying for his plan to help the country kick the importedsoil habit, still knows a fossil-fuel bargain when he sees one. The Texazs oil maven took new positions in a wide range of energt companieswith beaten-down stockm prices at the end of 2008, a year that the bellwetheer Philadelphia Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 Pickens dabbled in services playeras such as Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, natural gas shale producer ChesapeakseEnergy Corp. and high-profile explorationm and production company AnadarkoPetroleum Corp. Soros took even biggerf bites inthe process, gaining new positions in services players Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherforde International Inc. — after selling off his Schlumbergerdstake — while adding to his position in . Besidesd his substantial switch into Soros made another big move in late April involvinba Houston-based company by adding 3 million more sharexs of Plains Exploration and Production Co., boosting his stake to nearlyy 6.5 million shares.
Energy analysts and asse t investment managers who follow these movers and shakerse say that after energy stock prices kept climbingt in 2007 toward lofty highsin mid-2008, it’s been a whilw since the notion of value investinf could be applied to the sector. “Timing is says Eddie Allen, senior partner with Eaglr GlobalAdvisors LLC. “There may have been an over-reactiohn in the fall with the sell-off of oil 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 from the mid-$30s to $60.” Allen says that valu investors are still playing a bit of a waiting game.
He notes that stock prices are natural gas has notfollowed oil’ws recovery in 2009, and there are concerns that prices couldf stay depressed as inventories build. There is also more he adds, about possible consolidatiomnas mid-cap exploration and production companies eye the pickingws among smaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researc at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securitiex Inc., says Pickens, Soros and Tudotr might have even added more shares during the quartef if energy stocks had not rallied and moveed a bit higherthan expected.
“Thwe market took off so strongly in the firsrt quarter that investors took a pause waiting for a pullbackl thatnever came. They might have wanted more but the stock s got away a little bit onthe upside,” Pickering All things considered, energy was the hottest investmeny game in town. Says Pickering: “The overall themre here is that investors becamw reengagedin energy, which dramatically out-performedx the rest of the market in the first quarter, as people were just less terrifiex about the state of the worlsd (economy).” The energy resurgence party had some notablr no-shows.
While Pickens and Soros were pickingnew favorites, other big-name investorsx were still cleaning house. Warren Buffett sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillipe shares in the quarter to reducee his stake to a stillsizable 71.2 milliohn shares. Buffet conceded to shareholders of his BerkshirdHathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investmenrt in ConocoPhillips last year when oil pricees peakedat $147 a barrel was a mistake.