Kingpin investors raise energy stakes - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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A bevy of high-profile assef managers and hedge fund guruss returned to buying mode after takingg financial lumps in the seconrd half of 2008 when the value of energy companyg shares tanked along with the price of oil andnaturapl gas. Prominent investors such as all-star asset managef Paul Tudor Jones, energy maveric T. Boone Pickens and hedge fund investor George Soros dipped their toes in the energyu pool once again and grabbed multiple stake s inHouston companies, according to regulatory statementd filed this month. Jones, who oversees Tudord Investment Corp.
, found bargains in 10 Houston-based energg companies or major players with a significant presence in the and also took a new positiohn in WasteManagement Inc., still a big favorite of Microsofft Corp. founder Bill Gates. Pickens, who has spentt the past 12 months lobbying for his plan to help the country kick the importedoil habit, still knowxs a fossil-fuel bargain when he sees one. The Texasw oil maven took new positions in a wide rangee of energy companieswith beaten-down stock prices at the end of a year that the bellwether Philadelphi Oil Service Index dipped nearly 60 percent. Pickens dabbledc in services players such asSchlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
, naturaol gas shale producer Chesapeake Energy and high-profile exploration and production companty Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Soros took even biggedr bites inthe process, gaining new positions in serviceds players Nabors Industries Ltd. and Weatherford International Inc. — after sellinhg off his Schlumberger stake while adding to his positionin . Besides his substantia l switchinto Weatherford, Soros made another big move in late Aprilo involving a Houston-based companty by adding 3 million more shares of Plains Exploratiobn and Production Co., boosting his stake to nearly 6.5 million shares.
Energy analystd and asset investment managers who follow these movers and shakersa say that after energy stock pricew kept climbing in 2007 toward lofty highsein mid-2008, it’s been a while since the notion of valuw investing could be applied to the sector. “Timinh is everything,” says Eddie Allen, seniort partner with Eagle GlobalAdvisors LLC. “Therde may have been an over-reaction in the fall with the sell-ofvf of oil stocks. 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 Allen says that value investors are still playingv a bit of a waiting game.
He notes that stoc k prices are down, natural gas has not followex oil’s recovery in 2009, and therre are concerns that prices could stay depressed asinventoriesd build. There is also more speculation, he adds, abougt possible consolidationas mid-cap exploration and production companies eye the pickinges among smaller competitors. Dan Pickering, co-president and head of researcbat Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securitiez Inc.
, says Pickens, Soros and Tudor mighg have even added more shares durintg the quarter if energy stocks had not rallies and moved a bit higherthan “The market took off so stronglhy in the first quarter that investors took a pauser waiting for a pullback that never came. They might have wanted more but the stockss got away a little bit onthe upside,” Pickeringy says. All things considered, energy was the hottestg investment gamein town. Says “The overall theme here is that investors became reengaged in whichdramatically out-performed the rest of the markey in the first quarter, as peoples were just less terrified about the state of the worldd (economy).
” The energy resurgence party had some notable While Pickens and Soros were pickint new favorites, other big-name investors were still cleaninvg house. Warren Buffett sold 13.7 million ConocoPhillips shares in the quarted to reduce his stakw to a stillsizable 71.2 millioj shares. Buffet conceded to shareholders of his BerkshirreHathaway Inc. asset management firm that his huge investment in ConocoPhillip last year when oil prices peakedat $147 a barrekl was a mistake.