David Tepper Catches Bearish Billionaire Bug: Cuts Long Exposure By A Third; Liquidates All SPY, QQQ Calls

With 13-F reporting season officially open, today’s most interesting filing came from the man who single-handedly manages to move the market, based on his CNBC appearances, whether bullish or bearish: Appaloosa’s David Tepper. And, according to a quick flip through his latest filed long equity holdings [4], it appears that the “bearish billionaire” bug that recently affected such prominent asset managers as Soros, Gundlach, Druckenmiller and Icahn has not bypassed Tepper either, because as of June 30, the soon to be Florida resident has reduced his notional long stake by a third, and now shows $3.8 billion in long US equity exposure, down from $5.7 billion last quarter.

The most notable changes include the elimination of his SPY and QQQ calls (which together amounted to $664 million), as well as the complete sale of his stake in Delta, Facebook, Abengoa Yield, Bank of America and Pfizer among the top liquidations. Offsetting these, were new positions in Atlantica Yield, Western Digital, US Foods and Quorum Health.

Among his biggest positional changes, were additions to Allergan (adding 1 million new shares), Williams Partners, Mohawk, Allstate, Synchrony Financial and FOX. There were far more reductions, however, starting with HCA (down 2 million shares), Energy Transfer Partners (cut by 4.8 million), the Alerian ETF, Southwest, Kinder Morgan and many others.

by Tyler Durden

Aug 15, 2016